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“You know what?” The table has fallen silent, and all my friends—my family—are waiting for her answer. “I think I might have felt that. But that was the first time I saw him, not when we…” She lets the sentence remain unfinished.
“What?” Julie says, truly curious. “The first time you saw him? When was that?”
“In an elevator.” Maddie leans farther into my arm with a little shake of her head. “I was coming home from a dinner with my...well, with my ex-fiancé. He had proposed, and it was supposed to be one of the happiest days of my life.”
Scott looks at me with wide eyes from his side of the table.
I mouthshut upat him.
“And I was happy.” Maddie sounds thoughtful, like it was decades ago that I first saw her in that elevator. “I was excited, but...something was off about it. I was trying to convince myself that both of us were tired from the evening, and that’s why he…I don’t know. I just knew something wasn’t right.”
“He was such a fucking dick,” Kenzie says quietly and her mother scolds her, smacking her gently with the cloth napkin.
“He wasn’t the best,” Maddie agrees. “So we were going up to the eighth floor, and the elevator stopped and then the doors opened, and Graham got on.”
“Oooh,” Julie says, then covers her mouth with her hands. “This is getting scandalous.” I clear my throat and ignore her innocence.
“I just...” Maddie wriggles her shoulders a little. “I felt it. I feltsomething,looking at him, and I was barely even looking. I was mostly looking at him in the reflection on the doors. It probably seems crazy, but when his elbow touched mine, I—”
“Fell head over heels for him?” Scott asks.
“Yeah sure, something like that,” Maddie says shrugging it off, and everybody at the table laughs.
“That’s a fairy tale,” Julie says, her fingers linked under her chin. “That’s true love at first sight.”
Maddie’s eyes shine. “Yeah, I think it might have been.”
I thought about Maddie for six long months after that single elevator ride. I’m not the kind of man who puts a lot of stock in fate and destiny, but when she opened the door to her apartment—when it washerand not some random woman I’d never seen before—I knew that was my chance. You don’t get many second chances in life.
I couldn’t admit it to myself at the time, but I’d have gone for her, fiancé or not. I might have tried to put it off and deny what I felt, but it wouldn’t have lasted. There was something in that moment, trapped in that elevator with her, that changed me. Some piece of her fit perfectly with some piece of me, and I would have forever felt I was missing something if I hadn’t found her again.
Dinner is served and the conversation at the table moves on to Kenzie’s new classes. I set her up with an academic counselor in Chicago who was able to piece together her unfinished degrees and come up with a plan to finish both of them in two semesters. She talks about her projects and the inspiration she feels when she attends classes and how she’s already made strong connections with several professors, which will come in handy when she goes job hunting. Just listening to her talk about all of her plans and how optimistic she is and how ready to take on the world she is…I know every penny was worth it.
Her aunt is doing very well, too. The medical bills had been a crushing weight on her, making it hard to recover from her treatments. Now that they’re gone, Maddie says she’s doing better than ever. She gets teary whenever she gets good news from her aunt.
And, just to make sure there are no more nasty surprises when it comes to hospitals, I’ve gone behind the scenes and made sure Maddie’s aunt will never be turned away from any specialist she needs. She’s not to see a single bill.
It’s almost hard to imagine this table without Maddie. Her cousin fits here. Her aunt fits here. It’s like they’ve always belonged here. I just didn’t know anyone was missing.
It’s tempting to bask in it for the rest of the evening. It wouldn’t be so bad if we all just enjoyed ourselves without a big surprise event.
But what’s the fun in that, if you have the most important question of your life to ask?
The conversation flows easily, with lots of laughter and inside jokes and explanations so that nobody’s left out.
“Graham,” Julie asks. “I was going to ask you. Did you close on that property?”
“Of course I closed on the property.” I flash a smile across the table at her. “Did you think I gave up?”
“I heard things got a little dicey at the end.”
“Harlan just needed some...strong encouragement.”
He’d signed the contract to sell me the property while I was taking care of Kenzie’s medical bills. The signed document showed up in my email, and he’s been a delight to work with ever since.
I tell them, already looking forward to the new penthouse my little temptress is helping design, “Renovations on the building start next week, and it’s going to be incredible when it’s done.” Turns out she has a passion for interior design and spending my money. Both of which are suiting her well and I’m enjoying it just as much as she is.
It’s only when the night is coming to a close that I feel the nerves pick up. The waiters come in to take the dinner dishes away in preparation for coffee and dessert, and the conversation naturally lulls as they lean in, stacking plates and silverware and whisking it all away.
