She nodded as she reached out, grabbed my hand, but she didn’t squeeze it briefly and let it go.

She held it tight and didn’t let go.

“And I’ll look forward to your call and think of wonderful places to take you that will inspire you.”

“Thanks,” I whispered.

“My pleasure,” she whispered back, her hand tightening.

I tightened mine too.

We held on as she said, “All you gave today, I cannot say. Jake did a preliminary count, Amelia, and we’re stunned at what we raised but not surprised,” she threw out a hand to my empty space, “given your generosity. That money will most assuredly cover new equipment plus gym time, something Jake always took a hit on, which meant the gym’s bottom line suffered, rather drastically. But he never even considered letting the league go, and now, for the first time, that won’t be an issue. He might even be able to afford to get the boys into a better ring for their matches with decent seating for parents, something the league’s never been able to do. You’ll need to come and see the boys when the season is on so you can witness what you’ve done for them and how much they enjoy it.”

“You’re on for that.”

She smiled.

I smiled back.

She let me go on a warm squeeze and said, “Farewell, Amelia, see you very soon.”

“Very soon, Josie.”

She turned to leave and I lifted my hand and waved as she did.

She waved back.

I made sure she was safely on the road before I closed and locked the door.

I turned back to the room, the light feeling I had escaping me completely as the cavernous space suddenly didn’t seem like an invitation to create beauty, but instead with the quiet after a busy day, a crushing emptiness that could never be appropriately filled.

“Clean palette,” I murmured to myself, moving to the kitchen and finding that my last bottle of wine had not been sold.

I opened it, poured a glass in a plastic cup (for I no longer had wineglasses) and opened the fridge.

I stared at the picked over sandwiches and curled my lip.

I hadn’t even had breakfast, what with everyone lining the street so early. All I’d had time for was wolfing down a small bag of chips.

But none of that mess looked appealing.

I closed the fridge.

I briefly considered texting my kids to tell them the house sale was a huge success. Something they couldn’t care less about. A fact that, if I’d actually had an appetite, would have completely erased it.

Then I decided taking my first bubble bath in my fabulous bathroom in my fabulous tub overlooking the sea, doing this with a plastic glass of wine by my side, something my mother would never do and would actually find abhorrent (starting with the tub that had windows all around exposing her to the sea, though no neighbors, but definitely including consuming wine out of plastic), was just the thing.