“Yes.”
He nodded. He went to the door and picked up the grocery bag. He did not ask if she wanted to say goodbye to a hat. He took the bag to the outdoor bin and put it in under a sack of kitchen trash so the cap would not sit on top like a flag. Rain hit his sweatshirt. He stood in the driveway and looked at the oil stain and the place a black car would have been and then he went back inside because Lila might wake.
Ana was still at the chair.
“Are you leaving,” she asked.
“Not tonight.”
Not tonight is not a vow. It is a weather report.
They slept in the same bed with a space between them that the queen mattress had not been asked to hold before. Diego stared at the ceiling and saw Lila in the cap. Ana stared at the dark and saw Diego’s face when the smile left. The townhouse ticked. The association’s sprinklers would come on at dawn even in a week of rain, because the timer did not know about keys.
Saturday they took Lila to the park because parks are what you do when the house is too small for what happened in it. Diego pushed her on the swing. Ana sat on a bench and watched a man who was not Eric throw a ball to a dog. Lila shouted higher. Diego pushed higher. When Lila ran to the slide Ana said, from the bench, “I can go to my sister’s.”
“If you go to your sister’s she will ask why. Lila will ask why. Not yet.”
“So we pretend.”
“We don’t pretend for me. We keep her mornings from turning into a deposition.”
Ana nodded. She hated that he was being the reasonable one. She had no right to hate it.
On Sunday Diego called his cousin, the one with the patio, and did not mention Eric. He asked if the extra chairs were still in the garage. The cousin said why. Diego said no reason. He hung up and felt foolish. He had wanted a witness from the year they were only chairs and salsa. The cousin could not be that witness without a story Diego was not ready to mail.
Monday Ana went back to the dental office. She took the stairs. She did not ride the elevator. On the second floor her manager said the migraine was going around. Ana said yes. She did the books. At lunch she sat in her Toyota in the garage and did not look at the reserved spaces on three. Eric emailed from a work address: I will stay out of the building lobby. She deleted the email. Deleting is not the same as unhappening.
Diego picked Lila up from daycare. Lila said Sam ate glue again. Diego said Sam should eat a sandwich. Lila laughed. In the car she said, “Is the man coming.”
Diego’s hands tightened on the wheel.
“No.”
“Is his hat coming.”
“No.”