No, I was right. This was Chloe. I’d known her for nearly thirty years. We’d make it be okay. For everything we both stood to gain with this agreement, we could figure it out. Our friendship was too important not to.

“If you can’t handle it,” I said, “we can get a bed for the office.” The last thing I wanted to do was make her uncomfortable.

She straightened, looking as if I’d thrown out some kind of a challenge. Her chin went up a degree.

“What would Loretta say?” she threw back at me, and I couldn’t help laughing.

“We might need to invest in some black-out drapes just for her side of the house.” Naturally, the bedroom and my office were both facing Loretta’s place.

“It’ll be fine,” she said. “Like you said, we’ll get used to it. I’m going to get my pajamas on and then work for a bit. I need to get some things figured out for work tomorrow.”

“Help yourself to whatever you need. Feel free to unpack your stuff. We’re getting married this week, Chloe. We might as well start acting like it.”

As soon as those words were out of my mouth, I realized they could be taken to mean more. That wasn’t my intention. So I just shut my mouth and went to the kitchen for a beer. Chloe rolled one of her suitcases into the master bedroom, and I realized I needed to make room for her stuff in the closet and the dresser.

I followed her into the bedroom, where she had her suitcase opened up on the floor. “I can empty a couple of drawers for you,” I told her, going into my closet, “and there’s plenty of room for you to hang things. If we need to, we can buy you a separate dresser. Just let me know what you need to be comfortable. This is your home now.”

She didn’t say anything. But she did follow me into the closet and nodded when I pointed to the extra space for her to hang her clothing.

“Don’t worry about emptying drawers tonight,” she said. “It’s late and we’ve had a crazy-long day. I just want to get my pajamas on and collapse.”

“Let me know if you need something.”

I walked out of the bedroom, got myself a home-brewed lager from the fridge, sauntered to the front of the house, looked out the window on the front door at nothing but darkness. Then I went into the office and surveyed it as if I was actually thinking of getting Chloe a guest bed.