JULIAN

She did not look at me.

I want to account for this because the accounting requires it, through the entirety of what had happened at the table, through Cassie's arrival and the specific and surgical exchange that followed and the leaving of Cassie, Lena had not looked at me once.

Not for reassurance.

Not for permission.

Not in the particular and checking way of a woman who needed to know how she was doing, who needed the specific and confirming look of the person beside her to know that what she was doing was acceptable, that she was handling it correctly, that she was not about to go too...