“I want you to know I noticed.”

Upstairs I put the suitcase on the bed and packed the laptop first, then the chargers, then clothes, keeping my hands moving at the pace of any ordinary Tuesday.

On the closet floor I found the green mixing bowl Sarah had given me for my birthday, the one with the chipped rim.

I rolled it in a bath towel and packed it, and it was the first thing that whole evening that felt like it was mine.

I was halfway through the second drawer when Trent leaned into the doorway.