A person he liked.

Another placement he described only as not great.

He did not tell the story in chronological order, and I did not require him to.

I thought patience meant allowing him to choose the time.

Usually, it did.

Sometimes, I now understood, we both let patience become a place to put conversations we were afraid of having.

When we first began building a life together, he kept a bag packed longer than it needed to be.

I teased him about taking so long to settle in.