Marcus did not come to the bakery the following Thursday.
I noticed at ten o'clock, which was when he usually arrived. I noticed again at eleven, when the morning had fully settled into its quiet middle rhythm and the window table sat empty with the particular emptiness of something expected and absent. By noon I had stopped looking at the door with any real expectation and had transferred my attention entirely to the ganache I was tempering, which required precision and therefore was an excellent professional reason to stop thinking about anything else.
Renee said nothing.
This was, in its own way, louder than anything she could have said.
He didn't text either.
Not Thursday, not Friday. Saturday I was at the bakery for the wholesale prep and my phone stayed quiet in the way phones s
