The Second Time Around

CHAPTER TEN: The Westbrooks' Breakthrough

Marcus found Elena in the spa later that evening.

She was sitting alone in the sauna, her hair wrapped in a towel, her face flushed from the heat.

"Can I sit?" he asked.

She nodded.

They sat in silence for a very long time.

"I've been thinking about what the Vanderbilts said," Marcus finally began. "About showing love through actions instead of words."

"They were talking about their marriage, not ours."

"I know. But it made me think. About the poems."

Elena's body went tense. "The poems?"

"I stopped writing them because I thought they weren't enough. I was providing everything, money, security, a nice house. But you wanted more. You wanted something... I don't know. More poetic."

"I wanted you," Elena whispered. "I wanted to know that you still thought I was worth writing about. But you stopped. And it felt like rejection."

"It was rejection," Marcus admitted. "Not of you. Of the idea that I could be enough for you. So I just stopped trying. And slowly, we became strangers."

Elena turned to face him. "I took a job that kept me away from home too much. I was running from something, I think. From the mundanity of everyday marriage. And you retreated. We just... retreated from each other."

"I still think you're worth writing about," Marcus said quietly. "I still look at you and feel amazed that I get to love you."

"Then write me a poem."

"Elena—"

"Now. Write me a poem now. It doesn't have to be good. It just has to be true."

Marcus pulled out his phone and started typing. It took him ten minutes. When he was done, he turned the screen to her.

"I see you in the morning light, and I remember why I fell. Not for the beauty, though that's there. Not for the accomplishment, though you're the most accomplished person I know. But for the way you laugh at your own jokes. For the way you see the broken things in the world and want to fix them. For the way you loved me even when I didn't deserve it. Come back to me. We're not too far gone. We're just sleeping, and I want to wake up with you again."

Elena read it and started crying.

"It's terrible," she said.

"I know."

"I love it."