put it down. Her hands were steady when she folded the paper around it. That frightened me more than visible nerves would have.
“At the formal,” she said, “did you say no because you didn’t want me?”
“No.”
She waited.
I started a sentence about circumstances. Then I heard myself preparing the kind of explanation that made everything sound reasonable while concealing the only part another person needed.
I stopped.
The river moved below us.
“I wanted you,” I said. “I thought if I took your hand that night, I’d
