Page 159 of Romeo

Me: I’m good with complicated.

Ma Belle: You say that now.

Me: I’ll say it tomorrow too.

That wasn’t charm. It wasn’t even confidence. If Fiona told me something tomorrow that changed what I knew about her past, it wouldn’t erase everything I’d learned about who she was now.

Her next message came slowly.

Ma Belle: What if it changes how you see me?

I sat forward.

There it was.

Whatever she’d almost told me before, whatever secret had been sitting behind half a dozen conversations lately, Fiona believed it had the power to change my opinion of her.

That bothered me more than not knowing what it was.

Me: That would take a lot.

Ma Belle: You don’t know that.

Me: I know you.

I did.

Not everything, not every story.

But I knew how she treated Granny when she thought nobody noticed. I knew she loved Charlie enough that his name softened her entire voice. I knew she wanted to become a social worker because somebody had once stood beside her and she wanted to be that person for someone else.

Whatever happened before I knew her had helped shape those things.

It hadn’t erased them.

Ma Belle: Not everything.

Me: Then tell me the rest.

The dots appeared and disappeared so many times I finally put the phone down beside me and forced myself not to type anything else.

Eventually, the answer came.

Ma Belle: I can’t do it by text.

Me: Then call me.

Ma Belle: Not yet.

The disappointment was immediate, but it wasn’t anger. Fiona had been moving toward something for weeks. If she’d gotten this close and still couldn’t say it, pushing wouldn’t make the truth easier. It would only make me another person who’d decided her boundaries mattered less than what I wanted.

Me: All right.

Ma Belle: You’re not going to push?

Me: No.

Ma Belle: Why not?