The calendar on Nia's refrigerator had a new system. It had taken three attempts to get right Seren had opinions about color coding that needed to be incorporated and Darian had opinions about which days he could realistically commit to that needed to be honored, and between the two of them and Nia's own working schedule they had eventually arrived at something that actually functioned. Tuesdays and Thursdays Darian picked Seren up from preschool. Every other Saturday the in-between ones, the ones that weren't park days he had her for the full afternoon while Nia worked through whatever the week had left unfinished. Wednesdays they all had dinner together, which had started as a logistical necessity and had quietly become something neither of them wanted to give up. It was not romantic

