Jack heard from the kitchen.
Elena did too.
Sophie looked at the girl.
“She didn’t come back.”
Elena went pale.
Then Sophie continued.
“She got found.”
The adults went still.
The girl frowned.
“What?”
Sophie shrugged.
“Bad people messed up the mail.”
Children accepted explanations adults would overcomplicate.
“Okay.”
They returned to cake.
Elena cried in the bathroom for five minutes.
Jack waited outside.
When she came out, she laughed through tears.
“Bad people messed up the mail.”
“It’s not technically wrong.”
“She made seven years sound like a lost birthday card.”
Jack smiled sadly.
“Maybe she gets to.”
Elena looked at him.
“Yes.”
That night, after Sophie slept, Jack and Elena sat on the porch.
The street was quiet.
Her house across the road remained lit.
Jack handed her a beer.
She took it.
“I don’t drink beer.”
“You used to.”
“I became sophisticated.”
“You live across from a mechanic.”
“Temporary setback.”
He smiled.
They sat.
After a while Elena said, “I may move.”
Jack’s chest tightened before he could stop it.
“Where?”
“Not far.”
“Why?”
She looked toward her rental.
“I moved there because I needed to see your house.”
“And now?”
“Now it feels like surveillance.”
Jack laughed.
“Fair.”
“I found a place six blocks away.”
He nodded.
“Sophie know?”
“Not yet.”
“She’ll hate it.”
“I know.”
“Good.”
Elena looked at him.
“You want me farther away?”
Jack hesitated.
“No.”
Her expression softened.
“But I think you should have your own life.”
She smiled.
“I’m trying.”
Another silence.
“Jack.”
“Yeah?”
“Are we ever going to talk about us?”
He stared forward.
“Apparently right now.”
“You know what I mean.”
“I do.”
Elena waited.
Jack rubbed both hands together.
“I’m angry.”
“I know.”
“I miss you.”
She swallowed.
“I know.”
“I resent missing you.”
“I understand.”
“I look at you and remember twenty-six.”
Elena smiled faintly.
“I remember twenty-four.”
“You were twenty-five.”
“See? Memory problem.”
He laughed.
Then became serious.
“I don’t know who you are now.”
“Neither do I, fully.”
“That doesn’t help.”
“It’s honest.”
Jack looked at her.
“Yes.”
She continued.
“I don’t want what we had.”
That surprised him.
Elena looked toward the street.
“I loved you.”
She smiled.
“I probably still do.”
Jack’s heartbeat changed.
“But what we had belonged to people who don’t exist anymore.”