January arrived in the particular way of Portuguese Januarys: wet and grey and longer than it had any right to be, the city stripped of the charitable distraction of December and sitting under a sky that wanted everyone to know winter was its real project.
She went back to Lisbon on the fourth. Daniel returned to nursery. The routine reasserted itself.
But January had a different quality than November. She noticed it gradually, the way you noticed shifts in season — not a single day but an accumulation of small things.
Leonardo started calling rather than texting.
The calls were practical at first — about Saturday arrangements, about a visit from Helena he wanted to flag, about a legal matter Dra. Tavares had passed to his team. But they lasted longer than the practical content require
