I sat with that. There is something meaningful about a person having to say their own evidence out loud to someone they trust, because the process of saying it requires them to actually hear it rather than just hold it internally as a feeling.
“He also asked her about January,” Becca continued. “The dinner with his parents. And she — she was honest with him about what she’d said. About how she’d described your relationship.”
“That was a hard thing to be honest about.”
“I think she knows that. I think she’s known for a while that she’d done something she needed to own. She just — you know how she is. She has to get there in her own time.”
I did know how she was. The same quality that made Claire a precise and deliberate communicator in normal circumstances also made her slow to revise a position once she’d settled into it. She had a strong instinct for narrative coherence; once she had a story about something, it took significant counter-evidence to dislodge it, and she needed time to rebuild a coherent narrative after dislodgement.
“Is she moving toward calling me?” I asked.
“I think so. I think Owen is part of how she’s getting there. He’s not pressuring her, but his having the full picture changes the atmosphere.”
“Good,” I said. “I want to talk to her. I just — I can’t make it happen.”
“I know.” Becca paused. “She knows she was wrong, Elise. In case that’s useful to know.”