police caught him and some buddies drinking behind the high school- but he had never gotten into a fight, not even as a kid, and seemed deathly afraid of physical violence.
During that same phone call, Sonya asked him, "Did you know that Stephen didn't know any of the boys in the fight?"
"Yes."
She started to cry then. "So why did he step in?"
"I don't know."
They first met in person here at the Newark Museum three years ago. They had coffee and barely spoke. A few months later, they stayed for lunch. It became a steady thing, every other Thursday morning in front of the Hopper. Neither of them had ever missed one.
At first they told no one. Sonya's husband and daughters would never understand. Of course neither of them understood it either. Matt could never explain why these meetings meant so much to him. Most would assume that he did it purely out of guilt, that he did it for her or for redemption or something like that. But that wasn't the case at all.
For two hours- that's how long their meetings lasted- Matt felt strangely free because he ached and hurt and felt. He didn't know what she got out of it, but he assumed that it was something similar. They talked about that night. They talked about their lives. They talked about the tentative steps, the feeling that the ground could give way at any time. Sonya never said, "I forgive you." She never said that it wasn't his fault, that it was an accident, that he served his time.
Sonya started down the corridor. Matt stared at the painting another second or two and then followed. They moved back downstairs and into the museum's atrium. They grabbed coffee and sat at their usual table.
"So," she said. "Tell me what's going on."
She didn't say this to be polite or as an icebreaker. This was not about how-are-you-fine-and-you? Matt told her everything. He told this woman, Sonya McGrath, things he told no one else. He never lied to her, never fudged or edited.
When he was done, Sonya asked, "Do you think Olivia is having an affair?"
"The evidence seems pretty clear."
"But?"
"But I've learned that evidence rarely gives you the full picture."
Sonya nodded. "You should call her again," she said.
"I did."
"Try the hotel."
"I did."
"Not there?"
"She wasn't registered."
"There are two Ritz-Carltons in Boston."
"I tried them both."
"Ah." She sat back and put her hand on her chin. "So you know that, in some way, Olivia is not being truthful."
"Yes."
Sonya considered that. She had never met Olivia, but she knew more about Matt's relationship with her than anyone. She looked off.
"What?" he said.
"I'm just trying to find a plausible reason for her behavior."
"And?"
"And so far I've come up with nothing." She shrugged and took a sip of her coffee. "I've always found your relationship with Olivia an oddity."
"How so?"
"The way you hooked up ten years after a one-night stand."
"It wasn't a one-night stand. We didn't sleep together."
"Which may be the point."
"I don't get what you mean."
"If you slept together, well, the spell might have been broken. People claim that making love is the most intimate thing in the world. In truth, it's probably the opposite."
He waited.
"Well, this is an odd coincidence," she said.
"Why's that?"
"Clark is having an affair."
Matt didn't ask her if she was sure or how she knew. He simply said, "I'm sorry."
"It's not what you think."
He said nothing.
"It has nothing to do with what happened to our son."
Matt tried to nod.
"We like to blame Stephen's death for all our problems. He's become our big life's-not-fair card. But the reason behind Clark's affair is far more basic."
"That being?"
"He's horny."
She smiled. Matt tried to smile back.
"Oh, did I mention that she's young? The girl Clark is sleeping with?"
"No."
"Thirty-two. We have a daughter that age."
"I'm sorry," Matt said again.
"Don't be. It's the flip side of what we said before. About intimacy and sex."
"How so?"
"The truth is, like most women my age, I have very little interest in sex. Yes, I know Cosmo and the like will tell you differently, what with all that nonsense about men peaking at nineteen and women in their thirties. But in reality, men are always hornier. Period. To me sex no longer has anything to do with intimacy. Clark, on the other hand, needs it. So that's all she is to him, this young girl. Sex. A release. A physical need."
"And that doesn't bother you?"
"It's not about me."
Matt said nothing.
"When you think about it, it's simple: Clark needs something that I have