I sent her away and told her not to return for a few days. I needed space. Although it was like tearing my heart and guts out to say this, I did so coldly and watched her expression of want change to remorse. I half expected that she’d run home in tears and sob for the next hour.
I returned to my work, the attic and the quiet peace of my minimal life. I felt almost free of Alia amid those rough walls—so long as I didn’t gaze out the window and remember seeing her in the house opposite. That afternoon, I poured myself into my work and hardly looked up from my computer screen until well after eight o’clock. I took one glance out the window and saw it dark in my neighbor’s third floor—as it had been for weeks. That satisfied me.
Getting up, I padded downstairs to the kitchen for something
