“You want me to say it out loud?” Helen asked.

“I’ll say it.

Twelve thousand five hundred dollars, and not one of them stood in your kitchen this morning and said thank you for it.”

“They said it plenty.”

“They said it in October. It’s December.”

I looked at my phone sitting on the counter with the charger cord wrapped around it twice, the way I do, and I didn’t unplug it.

We carried our cups into the living room at twenty to three, because the island stools were hard on her back and she had driven across town to hand me a piece of paper.