Her last name, His claim
We were at my apartment, Tuesday evening, finishing dinner, and I was doing the thing where I thought I was hiding, sitting across from him with my fork moving but my head somewhere else entirely, back in that hospital room.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
I came back to the room. "Nothing. Sorry, I was just…"
"You've been somewhere else for two days."
"I've had a lot on my mind. Work stuff."
He looked at me with the expression that meant he knew exactly what I was doing. "Work stuff."
"The quarterly catalogue order is a whole thing," I said. "Very stressful."
"Elena."
"Being a librarian is actually more complicated than people think."
"Elena."
I set my fork down and looked at the table. "I'm fine