Page 18 of The Marriage Blunder

He shrugged. “It’s not just about control. It’s about making things make sense.”

“Even this?”

He looked at me, and the glasses amplified the effect of his eyes. “Especially this.”

We sat. For a while, we did not talk. Then, gradually, the conversation opened up. Not the way it had in the club, lubricated by alcohol and the pressure of proximity, but with a kind of incremental honesty that felt heavier and more dangerous.

He asked, “How did you end up with my sister?”

I told him, “At a charity gala, a series of high-stakes business dinners, a few dates, and then a proposal on a rooftop overlooking the city.

“Did you ever love her?”

I thought about lying, but the truth was easier. “I think I liked the idea of her,” I said. “She was what I thought I should want.”

He nodded, like this was a familiar story. “That’s not an answer.”

“No.”

He was silent, but not judgmental. He picked at a hangnail on his thumb, then caught himself and stopped. “What about me?”

I smiled. “We’re in an airport, not a confessional.”

“That’s a dodge,” he said.

“It’s a shield,” I countered.

He smiled, but there was no humor in it.

“I liked you before I admitted it,” I told him. “I like you more now.”

His face flushed and he glanced away for a moment. “You’re not the person I thought you were,” he said after looking back at me.

“Good.”

He asked, “Why?”

“Because I thought I was the person you thought I was, too.”

We let that sit.

He leaned back, stretching his legs in front of him, and the edge of his shoe brushed mine. He didn’t move it away.

We watched the travelers drift by, a slow parade of human error and logistics. The families. The red-eyed solo flyers. The honeymoon couple already fighting over a magazine subscription scam. Jude watched them like he was collecting evidence for a case.

“Do you regret it?”

I asked, “Which part?”

“Any of it.”

I looked at him. I took in the way he sat, arms crossed but not defensive, eyes direct and unguarded. “Not even for a second.”

“Even this part?”

“Especially this part.”

He was quiet for a while. Then, as if he’d been waiting for exactly this opening, he said, “I think I want to keep the ring.”