She was asking.
I heard the distinction she was drawing, the careful, deliberate line between asking and demanding, and I heard what it cost her to draw it, a woman who had every reason in the world to demand and was choosing not to, was choosing instead to put the question in my hands and wait for what I did with it.
I thought about Rome.
I thought about what Rome was going to contain and what containing it in her presence would mean and what containing it without her would mean and I ran the calculation the way I ran calculations, completely and quickly and with the full weight of everything available.
She was right that it had happened to her.
She was right that she had been in that room and had handled it and that the handling of it had been entirely her own, no assistance, no ins
