CHAPTER 44
TREY
Paula moved a bookshelf into Trey’s house in May.
Not herself.
Anthony brought it.
Which Trey considered suspicious.
“Why are you involved?” he asked.
Anthony carried one end through the foyer.
They chose one change together and started there.
Nothing symbolic enough for a movie. A chair.
A lamp. A section of the study. Paula rejected three options Trey liked and chose one he would never have considered.
He bought it anyway, then discovered two weeks later that she had been right about the room.
“Because she called.”
“You said yes?”
“Danielle told me to.”
That explained everything.
Paula entered behind them carrying boxes of books.
“Where?”
Trey pointed toward the study.
Paula stopped.
“Your study?”
“Our study.”
Her face changed.
Trey pretended not to notice.
The bookshelf went against the opposite wall from his.
Paula unpacked.
Political theory.
Business.
Law.
Biographies.
Romance novels Trey was instructed not to judge.
“I’m not judging.”
“You’re reading the covers.”
“I read.”
“Not those.”
“Why?”
“Because.”
He picked one up.
The cover involved a shirtless man and improbable weather.
Paula snatched it.
“Mind your business.”
Trey laughed.
By evening the room had changed.
His desk.
Her shelf.
Two chairs.
Her legal pads beside his casebooks.
Paula stood in the doorway.
“This feels serious.”
“It’s furniture.”
“It’s books.”
“More serious.”
She smiled.
She still had Brooklyn.
But more of her life existed here now.
Not smuggled into drawers.
Placed deliberately.
That night they sat in the study working until midnight.
At one point Paula looked up.
“Trey.”
“Yes?”
“Thank you for making room.”
He shook his head.
“We made room.”
Her smile was worth the correction.