“I’m sorry to bother you,” Carlow said when I answered. “Lonnie gave me your number. I’m downstairs. I didn’t want to ring the doorbell in case the baby was asleep. I just left something over here last week and wanted to pick it up. You’re here, right? If you’re busy don’t worry about it, I can come back.”

“No,” I said. “I’m here, it’s okay. Can you give me one minute?”

I thought about changing, but decided against it. Instead, I ran back into the bathroom and used my fingers to clear condensation from a little circle on the mirror, peering at my face. It was flushed and shiny from the warm water. I opened Lonnie’s medicine cabinet, but of course the only makeup inside was the tube of coral lipstick. She’d taken the eyeliner with her. I popped it open—the tip was still pointed and factory cut. I closed the cabinet and smeared it across my lips. Anything was better than nothing.

Carlow was sitting on the stoop’s railing. The sun had only recently set and the sky was still a luminous blue. He gave me a smile. “You’re the best,” he said. “I just got off work and I wanted to go home and read, then I realized I left my book here.”

“What book is it?”

“I’ll show you.”

We went inside and he rummaged around through some magazines on the coffee table. “Damn,” he said. “Where did she put it?”

“All you wanted to do on a Friday night is go home and read?” I asked him, my mind telling me, You imagined this into being and also, You must start the conversation that will make him stay.

“I’ve been working late all week, you know, I just didn’t have the energy for a night out. You probably know. You’ve been working late today too.”

“Not that I could go out if I wanted to anyway. I mean, tonight.”

“No,” he said. He was leafing through the stacks of mail on the bureau in the foyer. He paused over each letter as if it were his own mail. Was he going through her stuff? Was he jealous? Or maybe drawing this out on purpose? I became self-conscious about the way Lonnie’s dress gaped at the chest. I remembered I wasn’t wearing a bra and touched the neckline to make sure everything was still in place.

“Do you want to have a drink with me here?” he said, looking up from the mail. “That’s maybe the only thing I have energy for tonight. I can go buy us some wine?”

“Lonnie left a bottle of wine on the counter open,” I replied. “I know it’s from yesterday. We could probably finish that. So it doesn’t go bad.”