Gary noticed something on a Thursday. Not much—just a barometric change. We were watching television, and he turned to look at me in the middle of a scene with no particular reason. He looked at me for three seconds. Then he smiled and turned back. I kept my face completely neutral. It was the hardest thing I had done.
He became warmer. That was the tell. Gary, under suspicion, did not become cold or defensive—he became warmer, more present, more attentive. He brought me flowers on a day for no reason. He suggested we take a weekend away, somewhere we hadn’t been. He looked at me over dinner with an expression I recognized from Portland.