“It’s time we give up on the house,” she said one day. She said it was too hard on her that we barely saw each other. That as far as she was concerned, we could live in a tiny rental our entire life as long as we spent more time together.

“I know how much you want that house.”

“I don’t.” She pouted. “I’ve gotten along without it perfectly fine for thirty years.” She said that she was starting to think I loved the house I wanted to buy her more than I loved her.

“Is this about that designer?”

“What are you talking about?”

“It’s because of him that you’re talking to me like this.”

Debby said I was losing it. She wouldn’t speak to me anymore that night, and I started to stress out. I began to think she really had fallen for him. That she was about to leave me. I started to suspect she had somehow found out about my job, knew I was getting daily reports on her, and had to find a way to hide their affair. She went out, and I lay in bed and couldn’t fall asleep.

I decided to follow her. The bus pulled up in front of her office window, and I saw her sitting in front of her computer, and one window over, him sitting in the other room. I stood behind the bus stop and spent the entire day looking at them. I was waiting to catch them together, to find proof. But nothing happened. Every now and then Debby walked into his room for a few minutes, but it looked like they were just talking, nothing more. They didn’t even have lunch together.

It calmed me down, made me realize I had been overreacting, and that Debby was great. And that I really loved her, and had to make up for everything I’d put her through this past year. So the next morning I asked Bruno for the day off. He didn’t want to take my night shift, but eventually he agreed, said that nothing’s more important than love. I spent the entire day shopping for Debby’s favorite foods. Pasta and tomato sauce and salads and good cheeses. I bought only the best, so she’d know I’d always go all out for her. I got back to our apartment and spent the entire afternoon cooking. Then I set the most beautiful table I could, including a new IKEA tablecloth I had bought especially for the occasion and a bottle of wine we had been saving for a special moment. At seven in the evening I opened the door, sat down at the table, and waited for her.

But Debby didn’t show.