Mark showed up four days later, after she’d finally answered one of his texts and agreed to talk. He looked like he hadn’t slept either, sitting across from her at the kitchen table, hands wrapped around a coffee he didn’t drink. “I noticed the resemblance the day we met,” he said. “I told myself it didn’t matter, that I liked you for you. But I know that’s not the whole truth. I hid it because I didn’t want you to feel like a replacement.”
“You showed me a photo of some other woman and called her Chloe,” Julia said. “That’s not hiding something, Mark. That’s lying to my face.” “I know,” he said, not trying to defend it. “I panicked. I didn’t know how to explain the resemblance without it sounding exactly like what it was.”
“If you’d told me on our first date, I might have worked through it. People notice resemblances — that’s not a crime.” Her voice stayed level. “But you didn’t trust me with the truth once, in a whole year. I don’t know how to trust you now.” “I’ll wait,” Mark said. He added, “However long you need.” Julia said, “Waiting won’t fix it, Mark. Honesty might have…”