All the things that had seemed innocent when examined one at a time.
Together, they formed something neither of us could deny anymore.
Derek rubbed both hands over his face.
“Why?”
Vanessa’s answer came quietly.
“Because I liked being around him.”
He dropped his hands.
“That’s it?”
“No.”
Her voice broke on the word.
I looked away.
She continued.
“I knew how he looked at me.
I knew he always looked away first.
I knew he was trying not to cross a line.”
Derek’s expression hardened.
“And you decided to keep walking up to the line?”
Vanessa flinched.
“Yes.”
There it was.
Not an excuse.
Not a denial.
The truth.
Derek turned toward me.
“And you just let this happen?”
The question hit because I had asked myself the same thing.
“I never touched her.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“No,” I said.
“I let her keep coming around.
I told myself that because I wasn’t doing anything physical, I wasn’t doing anything wrong.
That wasn’t completely true.”
Vanessa looked at me.
For the first time that evening, there was no secret understanding in her eyes.
Only exposure.
Derek walked to the far end of the table.
Then he stopped.
“The night the pipe burst.”
My stomach tightened.
He looked at Vanessa.
“You told me Travis came over, fixed it, and left.”
“He did.”
I said nothing.
Derek saw it.
“What?”
Vanessa whispered, “I followed him home.”
Derek became perfectly still.
“To his house?”
“To his porch.”
His eyes cut toward me.
“What happened?”
I answered immediately.
“She stood under the porch roof.
I told her she should go home.
She did.”
Vanessa nodded.
