Chapter 26 - Dinner
Three years after the collapse, Alessandra invited me to dinner.
Her new townhouse.
Smaller than the marital house.
Warm.
Comfortable.
Theo was three.
He had Colin’s dark hair and Alessandra’s eyes.
He considered pants optional.
Marcia was invited too.
That surprised me.
“Are you sure?”
Alessandra looked at me.
“Do you want to ask a fourth time?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Colin was not there.
This was not a reconciliation dinner.
Marcia had gradually regained limited contact with Theo after Alessandra observed her respecting boundaries for more than a year.
No unsupervised overnight visits.
No parental authority.
Grandmother.
That was enough.
Dinner was pasta.
Salad.
Bread.
Nothing elaborate.
Halfway through preparation, Alessandra dropped a bag of tomatoes.
They rolled across the floor.
My entire body reacted before my mind.
Three years disappeared.
Grocery bags.
Broken glass.
My daughter falling.
I stood.
She looked at me.
“Dad.”
I stopped.
Theo shouted:
“Tomato escape!”
Then chased them.
Marcia bent down too.
Alessandra laughed.
No one told her she was dramatic.
No one asked why dinner was unfinished.
No one converted dropped groceries into a moral test.
We picked up tomatoes.
Dinner happened twenty minutes late.
Nobody died.
That was the kind of ending life was beginning to give us.
May you like
Ordinary enough to trust.
────────────────────
