Arc 4: The Question
Page 53
The Test He Had
Morning light pooled across the counter at Marco's Bakery when Chloe asked the kind of question that can make a room go quiet, even when it is spoken softly. Marco, holding a tray of croissants as though this were the most ordinary conversation in the world, answered without hesitation: 'You eat my croissants. You're real.' Chloe gave him a look that was half protest and half reluctant amusement, then said, 'That's not quite the right test.' But Marco only shrugged in that grounded, steady way of his and replied, 'It's the test I have.' It was a ridiculous answer, and both of them knew it. Yet beneath the humor there was something tender in it too, a refusal to make her prove herself by any colder measure. By the window, with a croissant in one hand and her notebook open in the other, Chloe found herself lingering on that kindness long after the joke had landed.