161 The Fight

POV: Avalon Pierce

It started with a chair. A specific chair for the nursery that Selene had found online, ordered, and mentioned to him in passing three days ago. It arrived Saturday morning while she was at the foundation.

He assembled it.

Or tried to. The instructions were seventeen steps and assumed a level of spatial confidence he did not have on a Saturday morning with coffee that had gone cold. By step nine he’d been at it for two hours and had three pieces left over that the instructions didn’t account for and a chair that looked mostly right but moved slightly when you sat in it. He texted her a photo.

She called immediately.

“What did you do,” she said. “I assembled the chair,” he said.

“Why is it moving.”

“It’s not moving significantly.”

“It’s moving,” she said. “I can see it in the photo.”

“It’s a slight-” “Avalon.

She’s going to sit in that chair. I’m going to sit in that chair feeding her at three in the morning.

It cannot move.”

“I’ll fix it,” he said.

“Don’t fix it,” she said.

“Kofi can fix it.”

“I can fix it.”

“You said that about the bookshelf,” she said.

“The bookshelf is fine.”

“The bookshelf leans.”

“Slightly,” he said.

“Call Kofi,” she said.

“I’m not calling Kofi because of a chair,” he said. “Then fix it properly,” she said.

“I’ll fix it properly,” he said. She hung up.

He looked at the chair.

Looked at the three extra pieces and called Kofi.

Kofi arrived at noon.

“These are load bearing,” Kofi said, picking up two of the pieces.

“I thought they might be decorative,” Avalon said.

“They’re not decorative,” Kofi said. “Right,” Avalon said. Kofi fixed it in twenty minutes.

“Good chair,” Kofi said.

“Thank you,” Avalon replied.

“The bookshelf leans,” Kofi said, looking through the doorway.

“I know,” Avalon said.

“I can fix that too,” Kofi said.

“Not today,” Avalon said.

Selene came home at two and went straight to the nursery.

“You called Kofi,” she said.

“Yes,” he said. “Good,” she said.

“You could say thank you,” he said.

“Thank you for calling Kofi after I told you to call Kofi,” she said. “That’s not a real thank you.” “It’s the thank you available,” she said.

He stood in the doorway of the nursery looking at her in the chair that didn’t move in the room that was the right green.

“I was trying to do something for her,” he said.

“That was the point.”

“I know,” she said. Her voice changed slightly.

“But.”

“But I need the things in her room to work properly,” she said.

“I need this room to be safe. I need to know that at three in the morning when I’m not thinking clearly everything in here is exactly right and solid and won’t-” She stopped. “Won’t what,” he said.

She looked at the wall.

“Won’t fail,” she said. He came and crouched in front of the chair. “This is about more than the chair,” he said.

“Obviously it’s about more than the chair,” she said.

“Tell me what it’s about.”

She looked at him. “I’m scared,” she said. “Every day I’m more scared.

Whether I’ll be enough.”

She paused. “The chair moving felt like evidence.”

“Of what?”

“That things won’t hold,” she said.

He looked at her.

“Things will hold,” he said.

“You don’t know that.”

“The chair holds,” he said.

“The room holds. The foundation holds. We hold.”

He took her hand.

“I don’t know everything that’s coming. But I know we hold.”

She looked at him. “I’m sorry about the chair,” she said.

“Don’t apologize for the chair,” he said.

“You were right about the chair.”

“I was sharp about it.”

“You were scared about it,”

“There’s a difference.”

She looked at their hands. “You’re getting better at this,” she said quietly.

“At what?”

“Knowing what’s underneath what I’m saying,” he said. “I’ve been studying,” he said.

“Who?”

“You, for a year and a half.”

She looked at him for a long moment. Then: “The bookshelf really does lean.”

“I know.”

“Kofi offered.”

“Let him fix it.” 

“Maybe sometime week.”

“We’re going to be okay,” she said.

Not a question this time. “Yes,” he said.

“We are.”

Elena kicked twice in quick succession. “She agrees,” Selene said. “She always agrees with me,” he said.

“She absolutely does not,” Selene said.

“She will,” he said.

“Eventually.”

“Castellano Pierce,” Selene said.

“Not a chance.”