Holiday things.”

She tapped the pad with the pen and pulled it closer to her body.

I watched her thumb press down on the top corner.

I sat across from her with my own cup, and we talked about the neighbor’s dog and the price of cranberries, and her hand stayed right where it was the whole time.

After a while she said, “We have plenty of time to figure out who sleeps where.”

I looked at the edge of the yellow paper sticking out from under her arm.