Chapter 17: Start Counting Up

They lived in parallel silence for two days.

Isla came home from the office. Cole was already there. They had dinner. They read in the living room. They existed in the same space the way people existed in the same space when something was unsaid and getting bigger.

It was not an angry silence. It was not a cold silence. It was a silence that meant something. The silence meant that Isla had told Cole she loved him and then had to process what it meant that loving someone meant you couldn't leave them anymore. The silence meant that Cole was giving her space to process this while also being very present, which was exactly the kind of thing Cole would do — provide the space and the structure at the same time.

On the third day, he asked her the question.

"Why are you staying late at your office?" he asked. They were sitting at the breakfast bar in the morning. The coffee mugs were next to each other. Her shoes were by the door. Everything looked exactly like it had looked every morning for the last month except now she wasn't planning to escape from it.

"Because I'm thinking," Isla said.

"About what?" Cole asked, though she suspected he already knew.

"About the contract," Isla said.

Cole set his coffee down. He did this with the kind of precision that suggested he was doing something he had thought about doing. "About the contract ending," he said.

"Yes," Isla said. "About what happens when it ends. It ends in February. Four months from now. And I don't know what we're supposed to do when it ends."

Cole was quiet for a long time. This was rare. Cole usually had a response prepared before the question finished. The quiet suggested he was choosing his words very carefully.

"Nothing in the contract says it has to end," he said finally.

Isla felt like she had been punched. She had spent three days thinking about the fact that the contract expired in February like it was a deadline that was unavoidable. The contract had never been optional before. The contract had been the thing that made this possible. Now Cole was suggesting that the contract was also optional.

"Yes it does," she said. "The contract explicitly states that the marriage will be dissolved on February 15th, unless both parties agree to renegotiate."

"Exactly," Cole said. "Both parties have to agree. And I'm suggesting that both parties should agree to renegotiate."

"Renegotiate to what?" Isla asked.

"To continuing," Cole said. He was looking at her with the kind of focus that meant he was very serious about whatever he was about to say. "I'm suggesting that we take that date off the table. I'm suggesting that we stop counting down and start counting up instead. I'm suggesting that you stay married to me not because of a venture capital clause or an inheritance clause, but because you want to stay married to me."

Isla set her coffee mug down. She opened her mouth.