But it was easier to want things than it was to do them, sometimes.

“Maybe I should keep it,” Nora said. “If it seems like no one would buy it.”

“Someone’ll buy it,” said Benny, stepping up to drop a brightly colored throw pillow into the decor bin. “Probably the same kind of person who’d buy this pillow.”

“I bought you that pillow!” gasped Mrs. Salas. “For Secret Santa, two years ago!”

Nora stifled a laugh. Secret Santa was rarely a secret in this building. Plus that pillow had There’s No Place Like Home embroidered on it. It could only have come from Mrs. Salas.

“Oh,” said Benny quickly, bending down again. “I guess I grabbed the wrong—”

Mrs. Salas interrupted him with a heavy sigh and a hand on his arm. “Never mind. We’re keeping everything in the bins. I didn’t spend forty-five minutes arguing with my husband so he could come back down and try to get this silly helicopter out of here.”

The silly helicopter—remote operated, lots of “horsepower,” according to Mr. Salas—was probably the item in the boxes that would fetch the most money. But Nora definitely wasn’t going to say that, especially because if he’d given it up he was probably right now upstairs in his workroom building something that Mrs. Salas would find even more annoying.

Nora let her eyes pass away from Nonna’s lamp, onto the other gathered items she and her neighbors had brought down. The solidarity—and she had a feeling that’s what this was—helped. This was fine! That wasn’t even one of Nonna’s favorite lamps, even if it had been from Italy.

Behind her, she could hear Marian’s muffled raised voice inside the building, and within a minute she too was crossing the yard, shaking her head. “Third time I’ve shouted up those steps,” she said, annoyed. “I know he’s up there on his computer!”

“Oh, he’s met someone new,” said Mrs. Salas. “She lives in St. Louis! I don’t really approve of that.”

“Didn’t even meet her on an app,” said Benny. “They went to high school together.”

“Ooooh, what now?” Mrs. Salas said, and Marian rolled her eyes, but she also definitely tuned right in.

Nora might’ve joined in the gossip—she did like a good story about Jonah’s dating life—but almost as soon as Benny started to answer, her attention was pulled away by the familiar sound of gravel popping down the alley. When she looked up, she saw Will’s car pulling in to the spot for his apartment, vacated only yesterday by his first tenant.

Her stomach flipped in anticipation, and she pretended to rearrange items in the boxes so she wouldn’t get caught staring.

“Dr. Sterling is here!” called Mrs. Salas, waving at Will as he got out of his car. “Nora, did you know he was coming today?”