Chapter 60: The Morning After the Date

Freya woke on Sunday morning and immediately regretted telling Chloe that dinner had felt like a date. Three messages were already waiting for her, each more intrusive than the last. The final one simply read, "Did he kiss you?" Freya dropped the phone onto the bed as though it had offended her personally.

Nothing had happened. Louis had walked her home, they had said good night, and both had returned to their rooms. Yet the evening remained annoyingly clear in her mind, especially the moment he had pulled her away from the bicycle and held her wrist.

She got up and went to the kitchen. Louis was already there making coffee. "You're cooking?" she asked. "Coffee isn't cooking." "For you, this is domestic progress."

He handed her a cup prepared exactly the way she liked it. Freya accepted it before realizing he had remembered the amount of milk she used. That irritated her for reasons she couldn't explain.

"What?" Louis asked.

"Nothing." She sat down. "Last night was nice."

"It was."

The simple agreement created an awkward silence. Freya drank coffee quickly and changed the subject. "Are you meeting Ethan again?"

"Derek and Noah are exchanging records first. We won't meet unless something important appears."

Freya nodded. Her phone vibrated again. Chloe: "I KNOW YOU'RE AWAKE."

Louis noticed her expression. "Problem?"

"Chloe has become emotionally invested in our dinner."

"Why?"

Freya stared at him. "Because she thinks it was a date."

Louis calmly drank his coffee. "Wasn't it?"

Freya nearly choked.

"You considered it a date?"

"I asked my wife to dinner on Saturday evening. What else would it be?"

She had no answer. Louis looked far too composed for someone casually destroying her interpretation of events.

"You should warn people," Freya muttered.

"Would you have refused?"

That question was worse. Freya looked down at her cup. "Probably not."

Louis's expression softened slightly. "Then it worked out."

Freya escaped into her room soon afterward under the excuse of writing. She opened her manuscript but spent ten minutes staring at the same paragraph.

Her original plan suddenly seemed less stable. She had intended to leave once Louis recovered. But he was already recovering, and instead of preparing emotionally for departure, she was going on dates with him.

She opened her private financial plan. The line marked "Future Separation" remained near the bottom. For the first time, she didn't update it.

Outside, Louis checked his phone. Derek had sent a message about Victor Shaw, but Louis's attention remained briefly on Freya's closed door.

Their marriage had existed for three years. Strangely, it felt as though it had only begun now.

Freya finally answered Chloe with only one sentence: "Yes, he called it a date." Chloe responded with so many messages that Freya muted the conversation for an hour. Even then, she couldn't stop smiling. That was the most troubling part. She wasn't merely confused about Louis's intentions anymore; she was beginning to care what those intentions were.

Neither of them wanted to rush the next step. They had learned enough to know that every answer could expose another hidden connection. For now, preserving the evidence and keeping Victor unaware of what they had discovered mattered more than forcing an immediate confrontation.