LOGINZach came in too easily.He took off his shoes by the door without being told. Placed Theo’s slipper box on the console table. Followed the twins into the family room as if this were already an afternoon routine. As if my house already had a space shaped like him and all he had to do was come back and fill it.I stood in the doorway to the family room, holding the expensive slipper box like proof that this man didn’t just walk into my life. He replaced the things he damaged so he had a moral excuse to return.Max sat too close to Zach on the rug, one knee pressed against Zach’s thigh, one hand guarding his chocolate box.“Don’t come near,” he told Issa.Issa sat on the small sofa across from them with a plate of lemon tart in her lap. “I don’t want your chocolate.”“You like stealing.”“I curate.”“You’re a thief.”“I’m a taste leader.”Zach opened the Italian paper bag and took out the dessert boxes one by one. A small chocolate mousse for Max. A glossy lemon tart for Issa. One small
Zach actually left.That should have made the house feel better.Lighter.More reasonable.No muddy Italian man on my terrace. No low voice making the most ordinary sentence sound like a moral mistake. No blue eyes looking at me as if every hidden thing I had was only one touch away from opening.It should have been a relief.Instead, my house felt too empty.I stood in the kitchen for maybe thirty seconds, holding my cold mug of tea, staring at the sliding door Zach had just walked through. Outside, the backyard looked like it had been attacked by a tiny army with insufficient funding. The plastic rake lay near the moat. The mint watering can was tilted in the grass. The fairy tactical base stood half collapsed, but still had more dignity than my life at the moment.“BIANNA! DON’T KILL MY ACHIEVEMENT!” Max’s voice came from upstairs like a small siren.“I’m not killing your achievement,” Bianna replied flatly. “I’m killing bacteria.”“That was mud’s friend!”“Maxime, get in the showe
I narrowed my eyes because I had no answer.There was no sarcasm sharp enough for that sentence. No sweet, poisonous comment I could throw without hitting something inside myself. So I did the most mature thing I could think of.I looked at Theo’s slippers, which had already been spiritually destroyed. “You need to go home.”Zach blinked once, and then he smirked. “Home?”“To your brother’s house.” I pointed at him from head to toe. “You’re dirty.”He looked down, as if only now noticing that his black T-shirt was stained with dirt, his jeans were muddy at the knees, and Theo’s slippers had lost the right to be called Swiss goods.“Fair point.”“A miracle. We agree.”“I’ll shower first.”“Good.”“Then come back.”“No,” I said.Zach was grinning now. I hated how the mud did nothing to ruin him. Another man would have looked like he’d lost a fight with the yard. Zach looked like the model for an expensive perfume campaign conceptualized by a woman with father issues.“I haven’t had dess
YAYYYYI stared at that one word for too long.Yay.Of course.Because there was no other way to welcome the weekend except with three capital letters, four extra letters, and the possibility of emotional collapse within the radius of my own house.In front of me, Max was still attached to Zach’s leg, punching the man’s thigh with two small fists full of mud.“The obstacle can’t move!”“I’m not moving,” Zach said, holding the ball in place with one foot.“You’re thinking about moving.”“That’s legal.”“Not in my game.”Issa spun around them with the empty watering can in her hand, her lavender boots now more brown than lavender. Her hair had half come loose, one glitter clip missing from its original place and still sticking out of Zach’s jeans pocket like a tiny piece of evidence from a ruined kingdom.“I’m making a new rule!” she said.Max groaned immediately. “You always make new rules when you’re losing.”“I’m not losing. I’m improving the system.”“Your system is cheating.”“My s
Max had already found a new form of tyranny to impose.“Stand there,” he ordered, pointing at two stepping stones near the grass that sat slightly higher than the ground. “That’s the goal, but also the obstacle, but also the defender.”“That’s three jobs,” Zach said.“Because you’re tall.”“That’s not an answer.”“It’s a reason.”Zach stood between the two stones anyway. The man could have refused. Could have said no, or forced the game into something that made sense. But he only put both hands on his hips, looked at the wet grass around him, then nodded.“All right,” he said. “I’m the obstacle.”On the other side of the yard, Issa was already kneeling beside what remained of the fairy garden, now half destroyed. Her lavender rain boots sank slightly into the soft ground, her white sweater had officially lost the war against drizzle and mud, and she did not look bothered in the slightest.Princess, yeah... not surprising.That kid announced every week that she was the prettiest, most
I wanted to throw something, but I chose to eat.Lunch continued the way every lunch with Max and Issa did: not peaceful, but survivable.Max explained that Mr. Harris at preschool had called gelato ice cream, and that was “culturally suspicious.” Issa said Miss Harper’s lipstick had not been “commanding” enough for Spring Gelato Day. Zach listened to all of it like a high-level security briefing.“If the lipstick isn’t commanding enough,” Zach asked Issa, “what’s the solution?”“Red.” Issa nodded. “But not regular red. Red that makes people move.”Zach glanced at me.I pretended not to see it.Max placed a piece of asparagus on the end of his fork like a microphone. “I said SIUU during recess.”“I heard.”Max froze instantly. “From who?”“The state has eyes.”“Mommy has spies,” Issa said.“Mommy has Bianna.”“Same thing,” Max said.Zach held his water glass, his face looking very serious even though the corner of his mouth was betraying him. “Arsenal and SIUU don’t usually come as a
The upstairs shower had been running for two minutes when the front door opened.“If any one of you calls me impulsive,” Bianna’s voice came in first, “I’m putting kale on your pillows.”Theo appeared behind her, carrying two big New Seasons paper bags, one in each hand, his face full of aristocrat
At home, the first thing I did was throw my keys into the ceramic bowl by the door so hard the sound bounced through the foyer.Two little heads in the family room snapped toward me.Max sat cross-legged on the carpet, his navy T-shirt riding up a little over his adorably round little belly, one to
We finally got home an hour later.An hour that felt like sitting in a surgery waiting room while pretending to like the wallpaper.The twins were full of pizza, full of toys, full of attention, and softening in that way little bodies always did right before they gave up completely. Max was still b
“Come on. We’re going home.”I finally said it again, even though my own voice sounded far away in my ears. Like it belonged to some other woman who just happened to be wearing my face.Max immediately tightened his arms around Zach’s neck.No.Wait.What?Now he was clinging to the man like it was







