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“Catastrophic. Call immediately.”

She disappears again.

I turn back to Gabi.

“I should have called you first.”

“Yes.”

“I am sorry.”

“Thank you.”

No lecture follows. Gabi reaches across the table and closes my laptop.

“Dinner?”

I breathe out.

“Dinner.”

Her grin appears immediately.

“I can do my own makeup.”

“I know.”

“Then why did you bring that?”

She picks up the case.

“Because I want to.”

Gabi puts a towel around my shoulders before she starts.

“This is unnecessary.”

“So are decorative pillows. People survive them.”

I sit on the closed toilet seat because the light in her bathroom is better, and she stands between my knees with a brush in one hand and a clip between her teeth, and after the second time I reach up she slaps my hand away without comment.

Gabi catches my eyes in the mirror.

“That’s your nothing face.”

“I do not have a nothing face.”

“You’ve been in my house two days. You have four.”

I look at the brush in her hand instead of the mirror.

“He takes the asparagus off my plate and pretends it was always his. He leaves the bathroom light on for me when he goes to bed first.”

“Those sound like complaints.”

“Yes.”

She pins and twists.