The Wednesday we’d planned to leave seemed to last a million years. Every phone call I fielded and paper I filed was just another thing holding me back from where I wanted to be. Alex had driven me to work so he could pick me up afterward. Our bags were packed and stuffed in his truck, and unbeknownst to him, I had about five magazines in my purse for the flight.

By the time I shut down my computer and gathered up my things, I was practically tapping my foot with impatience.

“I’m out of here for the weekend,” I called out, though there was barely anyone left in the office to hear me. Most of the accountants had already left for the day, anxious to start their holiday weekend.

I was walking out the door to wait for Alex when my phone rang. I answered it without checking who it was.

“I’m waiting out front,” I said cheerfully.

“Why are you flying to Oregon? You get a few days off and you didn’t think we’d like to see you? If you have the money to fly to Oregon, why wouldn’t you come home? We miss you. I tell Isaac every day how much I wish you’d come to see us. Then when you get the time, you—”

“Auntie.” I cut her off midsentence. She hadn’t taken even a single breath during her rant. “I see you got my email.”

“Of course we got your email. You think your uncle doesn’t check his email? He uses that for work, Sarai. He opens it every day.”

“I wanted him to see it,” I replied, rolling my eyes. I’d wanted him to see it because I wanted them to know where I was if, God forbid, something happened and they had to reach me, but I’d kind of been hoping he’d keep the information to himself.

I’d told my aunt and uncle all about Alex. He wasn’t some kind of secret. Besides, he’d been taking up what free time I had lately, and I wanted them to know what I was up to. I’d never hidden things from them—not big things. Maybe if we’d lived closer, I would have been more circumspect, but the only things they knew about my life were the things I told them, and I never wanted to get to the point where we felt like strangers because I’d stopped letting them know about my life.

“Alex is paying for our trip,” I told her as I searched the street for Alex’s truck.

“Well.” She paused for a minute, humming. “Of course he is, since he’s going to see his family.”

I laughed a little under my breath.

“I’m still going to try to come home in the spring,” I told her as I spotted Alex pulling up to the curb.