Go Away Chris
When she was finally asleep I sat in the kitchen with a cup of tea and the specific quiet of a party's aftermath, the room still slightly warmer than usual, the chairs not quite in their usual positions, a residue of something good still present in the air.
It had been a year since the Saturday in May when Chris had gone to the hotel. Not quite a year since I had moved into this apartment. A year of Iris between two addresses, of the gallery's continued growth, of Patricia's processes moving through their timelines, of Ken's company becoming something I valued and was beginning, carefully and without rushing, to understand.