Chapter 4: The Lake Story

"Black," Evan had said on Monday, and taken the cup from Maya's hand without letting it shake.

He had not said that the counter ran backward because he had made it do so.

For four days he asked the engineer small questions about Aegis, and wrote the answers on his palm in the lift.

Maya's name was on the Trace module, and she had never once looked at him while he read it.

On Friday, Ethan said the older board member was coming to dinner and would like to see the house run like a home.

"Meaning what?" Evan asked.

"Meaning there should be dinner."

"You want me to cook."

"I want there to be a smell," Ethan said, reaching for his coat. "Maya will bring wine."

He was gone before Evan could say that he was happy to cook, and that nobody had needed to give it a reason.

At six the kitchen smelled of onions and thyme and slow beef.

It was his grandmother's stew, the one with barley, the one she made when somebody had died or somebody was sick.

Evan stirred it with her wooden spoon, which he had put in his duffel bag without telling himself why.

The lift chimed.

"Something smells like heaven," Maya called, and came in with two bottles and a bunch of tulips.

The older board member followed her, and last of all came Ethan, loosening his tie.

They sat at the long glass table with the harbor going dark behind them.

Evan served the bowls himself.

"Rustic," said the board member, delighted. "My mother made this."

"It's Gran's," Evan said. "I just stir it."

"Tell me, Evan, do you miss the quiet?" Maya asked. She poured the wine as she spoke. "Millbrook. The one stoplight. I think I'd go mad."

"There are two stoplights now."

Everyone laughed. Maya laughed loudest and touched his hand.

"I love him," she said to the board member. "Ethan, you've found a treasure."

"He cooks," Ethan said. That was all.

Then the board member asked how the two of them had met, and Maya answered for everyone.

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