Norman
The apartment was too quiet after she left.
I sat on the couch and stared at nothing in particular. The television was still on, but I wasn’t watching it. The plates were still on the coffee table from dinner, and the basil she’d brought was sitting in a glass of water on the counter because she hadn’t found a vase and had done that instead without making a fuss about it.
She hadn’t made a fuss about anything, actually. She’d come over with groceries and cooked and laughed and asked one simple question, and I had yelled at her like she’d done something unforgivable. She hadn’t even raised her voice back. She’d just picked up her bag and left with her chin up, and I’d stood there and let her.
She didn’t deserve that. Any of it.
I rubbed my face with both hands and stayed like t
