They Thought I Was Asleep, So I Let Them novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: The Same Sixty

Florian's POV

I walked into the pavilion with her hand in mine and Nils at her other side.

The room went quiet from the door inwards.

Sixty faces turned, and phones came up across the room.

Marit lifted her chin.

Her hair was loose, her mouth was bare, and somewhere under the green dress my fingers had been inside her in the taxi.

I thought: nobody here will ever see her like that but us.

It steadied me more than anything else could have.

"Marit, darling."

Clemens's mother came across the floor with both hands out.

She was a tall woman in grey silk, with the careful kindness of someone who has run charity dinners for thirty years.

"You came," she said. "I told Pia you would."

"Good evening," Marit said.

"Please, we've known each other long enough." She kissed the air beside Marit's cheek and held her by the elbows. "I'm so very sorry for all of it. My son has behaved badly."

"Yes," Marit said.

The woman blinked.

"I hope that we can all be adults tonight," she said, and her eyes moved to me. "Florian. You were at our table every Christmas for twenty years."

"I remember."

"You've known him longer than anyone. Tell me honestly. Is it true what he says about you and Marit?"

"It's true that I care about her," I said.

"That isn't what I asked."

"No."

I looked at the woman who had cut my crusts off when I was twelve.

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