Chapter Forty-Seven: Friends?

Their lunch was going well. Marissa had insisted on ordering for him—“trust me, you don’t want to be the guy who picks the wrong thing here”—and Daniel had followed her lead. The food had arrived hot, hearty, nothing fancy, but exactly what they needed.

They laughed between bites, trading war stories the way lawyers did when they finally let themselves be human. Their wildest times in front of a judge, jury selections gone sideways, the clients who made them question their career choices.

Daniel found himself enjoying the sound of Marissa’s laugh. Not the strained chuckle he’d heard at social gatherings, not the teasing little half-smile she’d flashed in courtrooms—but a real laugh. One that surprised her, escaped before she could rein it in. It was different. Outside the bedroom, it was heartwarming.

They’d never shared a moment like this before. Not really.

When they got together, it was always through their wives, at parties, at fundraisers, double—triple—dates in carefully curated restaurants. They’d been satellites to each other, polite but distant, orbiting the same people but never each other. Conversations had been surface-level, the kind you could replay verbatim and still not remember.

Here she was telling him about the time a judge had kicked her out of chambers for calling a landlord a “parasite on two legs.”

He laughed at that, a deep resonant laugh that she was finding herself drawn to. “God, you’re fearless,” he lifted his lemonade to drink—they still weren’t brave enough for wine. “Sometimes I wished I had your bravery.” He paused for a second trying to bring up an old memory. “You remember the Reynolds’s fundraiser?”

She tilted her head trying to remember, but there’d been a lot of fundraisers. “The country club.”

“There were a lot of country clubs, Daniel. You’re going to have to be more specific.”

“The one about helping kids with cleft lip palate’s for kids in Africa?”

“That describes half the fundraisers in Manhattan.”

“The one with the ice sculpted swan with the cleft lip?”

“Oh God,” she groaned.

“God, that was in terrible taste.”

Daniel chuckled, “Can’t forget the waiters in dashiki’s, and the themed bar.”

“Believe me I tried.”

“But anyways I remember Arnold Reynolds going on about how charity’s were all about perception more than anything else. And god, I just remember you going off on him.”

She laughed, “I’d never seen a white man turn so red so quickly.”

“Every time I think about it. I wish I’d had your nerve. You told him exactly where to shove his ice swan.”

Marissa smirked, but her eyes softened. “Got me blacklisted from the club though.”

“Worth it,” Daniel said with a smile.

There was a pause, a lingering silence for a moment,

The waitress came by, she was an older woman, who’d been nothing but attentive towards them. She picked up their dishes, “Don’t want to interrupt a couple of lovebirds. Just let me know if you want any dessert, sugar.”

The waitress winked as she cleared the plates, leaving behind only water glasses and the faint trace of laughter that had carried them this far.

“We gonna talk about it?”

She raised an eyebrow, “Dessert? I’m partial to the strawberry butter cake. Or the—“

“Marissa.” He said firmly

Her smile faltered. Just a little. Enough. She set her napkin down, smoothing the edge against the table. “Listen … that night? The night we spent together. It meant something, but we were both going through something.”

“Yeah?”

“God this is so awkward,” she said to him burying her face in her hands, and laughing. “Look, as much as I liked it, it’s a lot to process. For the longest time I thought I only liked women, fuck, I still only like women. But …”

“Look you don’t have to explain yourself,” Daniel said to her reaching across to hold her hand, out of reassurance rather than romance.

“ Thanks.” She looked up to Daniel, warm eyes looking at his, “Look, I like you Daniel. Not sure if it’s in … that way, but I do like you. And I want to be there for you.”

“I want to be there for you too.”

She smiled and held his hand back, “Friends?”

“Friends,” he said to her.