Stacy came with him three days later.
She had dressed very carefully. A cream-colored sweater. Pearl earrings. Her hair was blown out. She looked like she was going to a job interview.
She sat across from me at my kitchen table. The same chair Todd had sat in.
And she said she was sorry.
She said she’d been thoughtless. She said she’d been unkind. She said there was no excuse for how she had treated me at Christmas, or at the birthday party, or at Thanksgiving.
“I don’t know why I did it,” she said. “I think I just… I wanted things to be a certain way. And I didn’t think about how it felt for you.”
She said the word “sorry” many times. In many different ways.
“I’m so sorry.”
“I’m really, truly sorry.”
“I’m sorry, Theodora. I am.”
I listened to every bit of it. I didn’t interrupt.
When she was finished, she looked at me. Waiting.
“Thank you for saying that,” I said.
She looked like she had expected more.
Warmth, maybe. A hug. A quick, easy forgiveness. “Oh, honey, don’t worry about it, it’s all in the past.” Maybe a few tears. Maybe both of us crying together at the kitchen table.
I wasn’t being cold. I want to be clear about that.
I was being honest.
“I accept your apology, Stacy,” I said. “And I hope things between us can be different from now on.”
She nodded quickly.
“But different is going to take time,” I went on. “It’s going to have to be built. And it’s going to take more than one conversation at a kitchen table.”
She looked down at her hands.
“I understand,” she said quietly.
She looked a little chastened.
That seemed about right to me.
At the door, as they were leaving, she turned around.
“Theodora? The lasagna. Did you…”
“It’s in the freezer,” I said.
She closed her eyes for a second.
“I’m sorry,” she said again. And this time, it sounded a little different. A little more real.
Sophia Rivers is an experienced News Content Editor with a sharp eye for detail and a passion for delivering accurate and engaging news stories. At TheArchivists, she specializes in curating, editing, and presenting news content that informs and resonates with a global audience.
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