I told myself I would just finish what was in the basket.

Just clear the outstanding work — do right by the people who had trusted her, return their things, and then close the door properly, with the accounts settled and no loose threads, which was the least she would have wanted.

It would take a few weeks.

I knew how to sew a button and hem a pant leg; my mother had taught me during a lean stretch when I was a boy, and Franny had teased me for years that I was the only husband on Delcorte who could take up his own cuffs.

A few weeks.