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“You should confront him while we’re still here,” Cole suggested.
Aria’s heart twisted with fear. “I don’t know…”
“Come on, Aria. Someone sent you that clipping for a reason. You now know more about your mother than you ever did before. And if you’re not willing to ask her about her past, maybe you should try the next best thing and ask him.”
That night, Cole slept peacefully as Aria stared with terrified eyes through the dark room. Cole’s body was only a foot to her left, warm and strong and wonderful, and it took every bit of her strength not to curl up beside him and whisper how much she loved him.
She imagined them years in the future, still calling one another “best friends,” as they married other people and even had children. She imagined having to watch Cole be someone else’s husband. She imagined befriending this woman and liking her.
Aria would be heartbroken forever if that was her story.
The next morning, Cole woke around seven-thirty. Aria was already wide awake, sipping coffee at the table next to the window and watching Savannah residents stroll to work, their eyes open to a brand new day. Cole smiled sleepily and said, “Did you sleep okay?”
Aria shook her head. “No. But it’s okay.”
Cole placed his feet on the floor to the side of the bed. “What time do you want to go to the architecture building today?”
“Maybe around eleven,” Aria admitted. “Judah usually starts his office hours, then.”
Cole saluted her, then headed to the bathroom. Aria listened as he showered himself, singing a song as the water streamed over him. After he dressed, they headed downstairs to eat breakfast, mostly Southern breakfast dishes slathered in gravy and heavy with potatoes. Aria laughed as they stumbled back out, their bellies full. She felt very slow and happy, and it reminded her of couples she’d seen on campus when she’d been a student, who’d seemed content to wander around, heading no place in particular, as the hours passed. Back then, she hadn’t thought she was capable of that kind of love. She’d thought she was doomed to marry someone like Benjamin.
Aria and Cole walked up the grand staircase of the architecture building, then stood in front of Judah’s door. Aria took a deep breath, then knocked, half-praying that Judah wasn’t there that day, that they couldn’t get to the bottom of whatever this was. But then, Judah’s familiar, deep voice said, “Come in,” and Aria felt herself squeeze the doorknob and twist it.
Aria had spent so many hours in Judah’s office in the past. Back in her lonely college years, it had felt like a refuge from the chaos of being a young and lost twenty-something who didn’t have any friends. Now, at the threshold yet again, Aria was overwhelmed with the sense that she was returning home.
Judah sat on the other side of his desk, one ankle placed delicately on his knee and a newspaper spread out in front of him. When he lifted his head to look at her, his smile was enormous. He leaped up, his arms opening.
“Aria Baldwin! I can’t believe it’s you!”
Aria couldn’t help it. She laughed, almost giggled with joy at seeing him, and stepped forward to greet him. Cole was hot on her heels, and he closed the door behind them.
“Hi, Professor,” Aria heard herself say.
“So, you got my emails, then? Are you here to re-enroll in courses?” Judah sat back down and smiled at Cole nervously. “And you’ve brought a friend with you.”
“This is Cole,” Aria explained. “I met him when I went to the Caribbean last autumn.”
“Ah, yes. The trip that took you away from us for good,” Judah said, reaching out a hand to shake Cole’s. “Although I hated to read about that horrific accident. I hope everyone is all right?”
Aria sat in one of the seats in front of his desk and blushed. “Everyone is okay. It was just an eye-opening experience that required a bit of perspective, if that makes sense.”
“It certainly does.” Judah frowned. “Where have you been, if I may ask? Getting that perspective, I mean. I can’t imagine you returned to Texas.”
“No. I’ve been on Martha’s Vineyard,” Aria explained.
“Beautiful there,” Judah said, clearly confused. “Have you been studying at all? Keeping up to date with news from the architecture world?”
“I haven’t had much time. I um. I cut myself off from my father’s money, so I’ve had to work hard to keep myself afloat.”
“I imagine so,” Judah said with a sigh. “That must have been some trip to the Caribbean. Everything changed for you, it seems.”
Aria nodded and laced her fingers together, frightened.
“But if you’re here to register for classes this next semester, I have several recommendations for you,” Judah went on, “including a class I will be teaching myself.”
“I’m not here for that,” Aria confessed. “Although I imagine that class will be incredible.”
Judah furrowed his brow. “Then, tell me, Aria. What brings you back to Savannah?”
