Max heard the key in the lock and was at the door before it opened, which they had been told would happen and which they had both, separately, been looking forward to. He greeted George first because George had crouched at the door and Max assessed the crouching as an invitation and took it seriously. Then he assessed Kristine, who was standing, and determined that the standing was a different kind of availability and put his nose against her hand with the particular thoroughness of a dog relearning a person after absence.She crouched too.He moved between them.She said: he missed us.George said: yes. He said it with the expression he had when Max did something that confirmed his rightness as a choice of dog.They unpacked. Separately and at their own pace, she had learned this was how George preferred returning from trips — he needed to be in the apartment for a while before the apartment felt like his again, and unpacking was part of that, slow and deliberate, the reassertion of
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