We had begun sharing lunches while Willa was in school, not as a couple but as parents who had once been in love and needed to understand one another.

There was humor in those lunches.

Elena teased me about an expensive watch that had stopped during a rainstorm.

I teased her about refusing to replace a coffee machine that sounded like a tractor.

We also had difficult conversations about money and power, and about the fear she felt each time my company called during our time together.

One day she told me about Willa’s first Christmas.

Rose had been unable to travel because of a snowstorm, and Elena had spent the evening stringing paper stars across the apartment.