I said, “Why did you put the note on my door?”

She thought about it for a long time. Long enough that I nearly left.

She said, “Because I didn’t want to say it to your face.”

Then she said, “That’s not an excuse, that’s just what happened. Your grandfather did it and I found out at three o’clock and there were fourteen people coming at six, and I stood in your bedroom with the dog’s bed gone and I thought, she’ll come home and scream, and there’ll be a scene, and everyone will see it.”

“So you told me not to make one.”

“Yes.”