the right cadence

The satisfaction when you finally find the right word for a passage you’ve gone over countless times before, and it never sat just right.

There is a cadence to the words. They have to roll off the tongue just right. There has to be a flow…

The word, in this case, is “indubitable.” “Crystal clear” was just not right—nor were the countless other combinations of words I tried on for size every time I revisited this sentence.

“If it had been anybody else, Sage would have brushed it off as flattery and found a way to make a joke during their next visit that would bring lightness to the situation, while simultaneously making it indubitably clear that there would never be a relationship outside their professional one.

The rational part of Sage’s brain told her that was exactly what she ought to do—but there was another part of her that wanted very much to make an exception for Alex.”