I decided to take my plate into the house and eat upstairs, which would certainly be free of guests. On my way inside, I weaved close to Simon, and he put his arm around my neck, nearly causing my plate to topple over. He pulled me against his chest and kissed me on the head and said to the interchangeable guests in front of him, “There’s nobody in the world I love more than this guy.”
This made the guests respond with one-syllable sounds of approval: oh or ah. It seemed a strange thing to say with Ellen, who I was certain he loved more than me, standing beside him.
ohahI went upstairs and into our old bedroom. Because a wall had been removed and Simon’s clutter was gone, there was much more space than I remembered. The beds were so far apart that it was hard to imagine I had ever felt c
