“All good,” I wrote. “Once she’s gone, I’m set.”
The words sat on the screen for half a second before I hit send, and even then, shame only pricked me lightly, like a warning I was too tired to obey.
Evie asked if everything was all right, and I locked the phone so fast my thumb slipped against the screen.
“Yeah,” I said, forcing a smile as I brought her the mug. “Just Jesse being stupid.”
She accepted the tea with both hands, and I remember how carefully her fingers curled around the ceramic as if warmth had become something she had to protect.
For one quiet moment, I thought she had not noticed anything, and that small relief made me worse, not better.
The next morning, she was softer with me than usual.
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