Laughing, I drop my phone to the floor beside my folded legs and resume my attention on the puzzle at hand, which—even though he didn’t have to—Fitz gave me permission to do while he was away. If I’m being honest, focusing my energy on the task at hand helps, but not in the same way it used to. I find it funny that when I first moved into this apartment, I was overwhelmed by the noise, by the people after getting used to quiet and solitude for so long. But now? Coming home to an empty apartment is my least favorite thing in the world.

My phone rings, and I brace myself thinking it’s Madeline, but as soon as I see the name, I smile.

“Hey.”

Fitz sighs into the phone. “God, I miss you.”

“You sound exhausted.” I push the pieces of the puzzle I had been working with further across the coffee table and push off the floor, flipping off the light and heading into our room. “I don’t know if that’s good or bad.”

“Long day.”

There’s a distance to Fitz’s voice. “What happened? Are you okay?”

Fitz ignores my question. “You also sound tired. Have you been sleeping well?”

Pulling the phone away so he doesn’t hear me yawn, I nod. “Almost like a baby.” I plop down onto the bed.

“Almost?” Fitz asks. There’s worry in his voice now and I feel bad. But the truth is, I’ve felt more at peace than normal, even without him here. I don’t want to tell him to know that. I still need him around.

“Abby worked me hard.”

“You? Or Bernard?”

“Hey,” I say. “Horseback riding is an Olympic sport. Last I checked, football wasn’t.”

“It is if you consider football to be soccer,” Fitz points out.

I giggle, reaching out to the cool, empty space beside me. “I miss you too. I didn’t tell you that before.”

I don’t say that I miss the bits of Fitz I didn’t even notice fully until he left, like his sneakers by the door, or the keys to his truck on the table in the entry, the first clues that he was home when I entered the apartment. The shampoo bottle in the bathroom stands the right way up, not upside down as he leaves it. There’s less laundry, but more food in the cabinets, some sort of imbalance and I frown because I didn’t realize the balance I had at home with him.

And, of course, there’s more room in bed, which, as someone who has slept on a twin-sized mattress for so long, is something I should appreciate.