pulled it out and opened a text message. From Dominic. “Meet me at the Market at one for lunch?” I smiled, and typed a quick response. “I’ll be in front of the first flower stand. Bring Advil.”
Dominic waited at the corner of the market, a bouquet of hydrangeas wrapped in brown butcher paper in his hands. “For you,” he said, tucking the enormous bunch into the crook of my arm.
“They’re beautiful,” I said, feeling awkward about accepting them, especially after last night.
“How’s your head?”
“Pounding,” I replied.
He pulled a pill bottle from his pocket. “Here,” he said, handing me two white pills.
I washed them down with a sip from the water bottle in my purse. “I’m starving. What did you have in mind?”
He pointed to a creperie across the street. Ethan and I had eaten there when I was pregnant and craving crepes. “How about La Bouche?”
I shrugged. “OK.”
We crossed the cobblestone street. My heels sank into the large grooves. I loved the exposed brick in this part of Seattle. It’s how the city must have looked when Vera and Daniel walked through the Market so many years ago.
Dominic and I sat down on two stools facing the street. The waitress took our crepe orders. He ordered mushroom, and I goat cheese and roasted red pepper, the same thing I’d sent Ethan down for on multiple occasions when a pregnancy craving struck.
“Listen,” I said, “I’m really sorry for my behavior last night.”
“No need to apologize. You have nothing to be ashamed of.”
“I think I do,” I said. “I’m married, and I was acting like a—”
“You were acting like a woman who was hurt,” he said. “And for the record, you did not kiss me.”
I arched my eyebrows. “I didn’t?”
“You tried to,” he said, grinning. “And I thought about letting you, but I didn’t.”
I exhaled deeply.
“What’s with your sister-in-law, though?”
The memory was fuzzy, but I recalled Leslie’s accusatory stare. “She’s never liked me.”
“Sounds like a real peach.”
I took a sip of water. “You’re telling me. By now, she’s probably recounted the story to Ethan and her parents in great detail. But in her version, I’m sure I had my tongue down your throat.”
“Naturally,” he said, smiling.
Moments later, the waitress reappeared with our crepes. I took a bite of mine. The mélange of roasted red peppers and warm goat cheese tasted just as luscious as I remembered.
Dominic dabbed his mouth with a napkin. “All joking aside, how are you doing?”
I shrugged. “It’s weird. I feel like a storm’s coming—a big one that I’m not prepared for. I have this sense that it’s going to pummel my house, my life, everything I’ve been holding on to so tightly, for so many years. I’m bracing for it. I know it’s going to hurt.” I sighed. “And after what I went through this year, I’m not sure I have the strength to handle it.”
He gave me a confused look.
I hadn’t told him about the accident, not yet. I clasped my hands together and took a deep breath. “We lost a baby,” I said. “A year ago.” The words whizzed out of my mouth before I could think them over.
“Oh, Claire,” Dominic said, his eyes filled with sorrow. “I don’t know what to say.”
Outside the window, a woman jogged by. Her ponytail swayed as her strong legs carried her through the market, dodging pockets of tourists. I followed her with my eyes until she disappeared around the corner. I wanted to stand up, run after her, and shout, “Be careful! In a mere blink of the eye, everything you love can be taken from you!”
Dominic opened his mouth to speak, but his cell phone struck first, ringing loudly inside his jacket. He looked at the screen, then smiled apologetically. “I have to take this. I’ll be right back.”
“No worries,” I said, turning my attention back to the neglected crepe.
Dominic stepped to the sidewalk, and I watched him hold the phone up to his ear as he paced nervously. Who is he talking to? The crowd in the café was loud, but because the window had been propped open, bits and pieces of the one-sided conversation seeped in.
“I don’t know what to say…. Well, I’m a little speechless right now, I guess…. I understand, but I wasn’t planning to…All right, I’ll give it some thought…. I’ll call you…yes.”
I nervously stuffed a bite into my mouth when he returned to the counter.
“Sorry,” he said.
My curiosity swelled. “Something important?”
“Just my…sister. She needed some business advice.”