"Sorry."
That night, Leo put his pillow on the floor. share bed with stepmom
"I’m not your mother," she said suddenly. "Sorry
"This is practical," she said, already settling on the far edge of the queen mattress. She smelled of lavender and something else—exhaustion, maybe, or the faint smoke of a cigarette she’d had on the fire escape. "We’re adults. We can share a bed for six hours without it meaning anything." "Sorry." That night
It wasn’t about sex. That’s what made it dangerous.
A soft knock. Then Nora’s voice, low and dry. "Your father snores like a capsizing ship. And I’m not sleeping in that."
He took his coffee to the fire escape and sat with the cold morning air on his face.