Chapter 7

After Sophie left, I gathered up the cookies she'd brought and went to put the rest in the kitchen cabinet.

The shelf where I used to keep snacks now held Kate's coffee beans and several bottles of vitamins.

Over the next two days, packages kept arriving at the door.

First a monitor, then a file box, followed by two large bags of clothes.

When Daniel got home from work, he carried the monitor into the guest room.

As I walked past, I saw that Kate had cleared the small desk and put my sewing box on the floor.

"Where should this go?" she asked.

"Back in the cabinet for now."

Daniel bent to pick up the box while Kate kept unpacking the power cord.

The desk had been a place for occasional overnight guests to put their things. Now it held a keyboard, headphones, and a stack of documents.

I stood with one hand on the doorframe, watching for a moment.

"Are you going to work here?"

"I can't keep using just my laptop," she said. "The screen's too small. It's hard on my eyes."

I thought she was just making herself more comfortable, so I didn't ask anything else.

The next afternoon, I collected the mail.

Among the bills was an envelope from a bank, addressed to Kate at our house.

When I came inside, she was pouring herself coffee in the kitchen.

"You have mail."

"Thanks. I was worried the address change hadn't gone through."

I didn't hand it over right away.

"You changed your address with the bank too?"

"Yes. I can't keep having mail sent to the old apartment."

She took the envelope and tore it open.

"The lease is almost up. I've been so busy, I've barely had time to deal with any of it."

I set the rest of the mail on the counter.

"When are you going back?"

She looked up.

"Back where?"

"To your apartment. Daniel said you were only coming to help for two weeks."

The paper in her hand stopped midair.

"I didn't renew the lease."

The only sound in the kitchen was the hum of the fridge. I looked toward the hallway, where the monitor box still stood beside the guest room door, waiting to be broken down.

"What do you mean, you didn't renew it?"

"The landlord was raising the rent, and I was already thinking about moving. Daniel said there was no rush to find somewhere else. I could stay here while you were on maternity leave."

She put the bank letter down.

"He said you needed the help, and we could work out what to do next once you went back to work."

I still had more than two months of maternity leave left.

"When did he tell you that?"

"Before you had the baby."

As Kate studied my face, her casual manner began to fade.

"You didn't know?"

I didn't answer.

Last week, when I'd asked Daniel when we could get the caregiver back, he'd told me to give it a few days.

Every time I said this wasn't working for me, he told me it was temporary.

But Kate had already given up her apartment and redirected her mail.

"I thought he'd told you," she said.

I picked up my phone and called Daniel.

He answered quickly, his first question whether something was wrong with the baby.

"Kate says she's staying until my maternity leave ends."

There was silence for a few seconds.

"We only discussed it as a possibility."

"She hasn't renewed the lease on her apartment."

"It wasn't a good place for her to stay anyway."

I looked at the bank envelope on the counter.

"Why did you tell me it was only two weeks?"

"I said we'd try it for two weeks. If it worked out, of course we could discuss her staying longer."

"You've already had her give up her apartment. What exactly is left for us to discuss?"

Kate stood on the other side of the counter. She hadn't walked away.

Daniel lowered his voice.

"We'll talk when I get home. Just don't make her feel like we're kicking her out."

I held the phone and heard a door open on his end.

He wasn't even home yet, and he'd already decided how tonight's conversation had to end.