Two bedrooms, a courtyard the size of a rug, and a kitchen with a window that gets the light at four in the afternoon.

I kept my job.

I had assumed I would have to give it up and my boss — a man named Dale who has never said an emotionally articulate thing in his life — said, “Do I care what time zone the reconciliations get done in?” and that was the entire conversation.

Clara came down and helped me paint.

Evelyn flew in and threw a housewarming for eleven people, most of whom I had known for three weeks, and made a scene about the ice.

And for the first time in my adult life I chose every single object in a room without wondering whether somebody was going to have a view about it.