Her phone buzzed again, and he drew it out of her hand and peered at it. He had to hold it a bit away from his face, and then closer, as though he couldn’t quite focus on the letters in the fading daylight.
Then he slid the phone back into her hand.
“If I may make a suggestion.”
“Sure.”
“Boundaries. Matt requires boundaries. Most of us do.”
“Divorced men?”
“Humans. Rosemary used to talk about boundaries with Beatrice. That she couldn’t grow up to be a strong and independent woman if she didn’t understand what it meant to both make boundaries and respect other people’s. Your Matt—”
“Not my Matt.”
“This Matt, here, who turned on the closet light instead of asking you for sex, has some problems with boundaries, I think.”
“Yeah.” When he put it that way, it seemed obvious.
“I’ve run into problems with boundaries myself. Most famously with my brother. And what I’ve observed, from both making boundaries and having them imposed on me, is that the nice thing about them is it’s never too late. Whenever you make a boundary that’s needed, or respect one that someone else needs, things improve.”
“I can make boundaries with Matt.” She tried to sound sure of this.
“You can. And he’ll probably be hurt, or angry, or both, but that’s not your problem. Your problem is only deciding what boundary you need, and making it.”
Her phone buzzed.
Winston kissed her softly and tapped the back of her hand. “Now would be a good time to start.”
He turned at the top of the stairs. “Oh, and Allie? There’s a film about zombies I’m meant to be watching, only they’re very fast-moving zombies, and quite terrifying. Bea says it’s a London movie, and I’ll like it. If you’re interested, I’ll wait up.”
Chapter 15
Allie came into his bedroom, her sweatshirt off one shoulder, tossed her phone onto the bedside table, and collapsed spread-eagled on the bed.
“Hoo.”
“You were up there a long time.”
“Yeah. Did you start without me?”
“Another film from my queue, not the zombies.”
“Oh, it’s The Devil Wears Prada. I like this one.”
“Meryl Streep is delightful, and this young woman, this…” He couldn’t remember her name from the description, but she had lovely eyes, and energy that reminded him of Allie.
“Anne Hathaway.”
“Yes. I like her.”
Allie smiled and kissed his temple. “Do you want to pause your movie so you don’t miss the end?”
“No, that’s all right. I think I’ve got the gist of how it all comes out. Tell me about this ‘hoo.’?”
She turned onto her side to face him, her head propped in one hand, her hair spreading out over her shoulders. “Well, I had to say the same things about a hundred times. I kept using the words ‘healthy boundary,’ and ‘time and space.’?”
“How did he react?”