“Yes.”
“I was rude to you.”
“Yes.”
“I kept doing it on purpose.”
“I know.”
She looked at me with the expression of someone who is doing something that doesn’t come naturally and is committed to doing it anyway.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “Genuinely.”
I looked at her for a moment.
“Thank you,” I said.
We did not hug. We did not exchange phone numbers. We did not have a cup of tea together and become friends, because friendship requires more than a resolved conflict and I was under no illusions about what this was.
But she had said it plainly, without hedging or self-justifying, and I had heard her, and that was something.
The driveway widening was completed before Christmas. Paul had not been understating the scale of the project. The new surface was smooth and generous, angled for effortless access from either direction, the kind of driveway that makes you wonder how you ever managed with the previous one.
