It fit perfectly.
For a moment, I simply looked around.
The empty room.
The warm light.
The promise of all the people who would sit at this table in the years ahead.
Then Julian placed something in front of me.
A small framed photograph.
It showed Thomas, Julian, and Lucy standing beside the purple birdhouse in my garden.
The photograph I'd first seen in Mr. Harrison's apartment.
But underneath it was another picture.
Me.
Standing with Julian and Lucy at the opening ceremony.
We were laughing.
In the first photograph, I was missing.
In the second, Thomas was missing.
But something connected them.
Love.
Imperfect.
Complicated.
Still present.
Julian sat beside me.
“Margaret?”
“Yes?”
“I've been thinking about something.”
I smiled.
“That sounds serious.”
He laughed softly.
“It is.”
Then he looked at me.
“For most of my life, I wondered why Thomas kept the different parts of his life separate.”
