They Went on a Holiday Cruise and Left Me With a Man They Called a “Problem”

I slipped it back into my pocket without looking and wrapped both hands around my warm cup.

“You know,” I said, “this almost feels normal.”

“It is normal,” Thomas said. “What was abnormal was being treated as though we were incapable of arranging our own days.”

“It comes from fear,” I said, surprising myself by defending them. “The idea that the people continue reading …