They did the dates on a Wednesday, at the table, with Ruth gone back to Rochester and a legal pad Megan had taken from the drawer where she kept the tax folder. Evan wanted exactness the way he wanted a grid coordinate. She gave him what she had.
Ice storm, January. Coffee. Furnace, February. Thursday in March, lights off. Test in April. Janelle in May. She had not been with him on any leave because there had been no leave. She had not written the sentence on a call. She had paid the mortgage with his allotment and hated the cleanness of that, the way his money kept the lights on in a house where another man had fixed the heat.
“Did you love him,” Evan asked.
“I needed him in the room. I am not going to dress that up.”