Saturday arrived without urgency.
No alarms. No rushing out the door. Just the quiet hum of a house waking slowly—sunlight filtering through the curtains, the faint sound of a kettle heating in the kitchen, the creak of floorboards that still remembered their footsteps from years ago.
Marian woke first.
She lay still in the guest room, staring at the unfamiliar ceiling, listening to the silence. The bed was comfortable, the room thoughtfully prepared—fresh sheets, folded towels, a small vase of flowers on the dresser—but it wasn’t their room. And that distinction mattered more than she’d expected.
Last night had been… strange.
Not bad. Just emotionally dense.
——
After lunch, they went to the park.
The afternoon sun hung warm and forgiving in the sky, softening the edges of everythi
