I don’t want her to go to sleep, but she’s doing it. The sadness setting deeper in to the night which is entering its next phase. My next shift that much closer. My mother and Lilli’s birthday both coming to a close.

It’s only nine o’clock, which is a good thing. This like some sort of extended session of this portion of the night. Who’s to complain? Can you say it is not one of my favorite times?

Really learning how my days and nights are sectioned, looking at the schedule of my life from this perspective, seeing the routine, the hours of my personal clock.

Tequila blanco still existing in the cabinet and a carton of cookies on the desk. Fine fuel for the continuation of a story. I think that last I saw you I was leaving to pick Musette up, she not having the best of days, having to work this job that takes up so much of her time and sends blisters rising round her wedding ring.

As I was leaving the unit, going down the stairs, with my dog in tow, I heard the sounds of the outside door rattling followed by footsteps coming up the stairs towards me. It was one of my building mates, someone I had never met before, a girl who had moved into the apartment beneath us after the two girls who used to live there moved out, the ones who left their rug leaning against the tree outside of our building and a tripod which Musette had picked up to give to her brother because there was a piece of paper attached to it which read ‘Free, please take’.

This new girl has headphones in. She looks like a boy. She has a really nice smile on her face as she says hello to me, softly, almost silently, in that way that soft-spoken people often do when they have headphones in.

I give her the same, soft and nearly silent kind of greeting, waving at her lightly as I make my way out of the building.

The big metal doors next to ours are opening. My landlord is coming out. He gives me a big smile and says hello. There is no indication that he is upset with me for not paying for our air conditioner this month.

Nonetheless, I’m not going to stop and have a conversation with him, so I exaggerate how much of a hurry I am in, tapping my foot on the sidewalk and looking at my watch while my dog urinates on the first tree that we come to.

It’s bright out. The sun is shining directly into my eyes as I head up Myrtle. Musette has gotten closer to home than she would have liked to without me.

She tells me that I am late.

I got carried away tidying up, I tell her.

The place had better be spotless, she says.

It looks better than it could have.

She wants candy.

I tell her that I don’t have any cash.

If you spend five dollars, then you can pay with a card at the gas station.

She is not excited about the gas station’s candy selection.

It’s all small stuff.

She tells me how she was planning on being picked up by me at the subway and going to get candy from there.

Where were you wanting to go? I ask her.

She doesn’t know.

Maybe, I’ll just make another Amazon order, she says.

The first thing she does when she gets home is sit on the toilet.

I get my computer and sit against the kitchen wall outside of the bathroom. The dog comes and lies down next to me.

Just two boys waiting on their girl, I say.

Story of my life.

Story of my life?

We get in bed after she gets off.

I ask her if she wants to watch Ice Road Truckers.

She says she’s good with that and pulls up JustJared.