“That’s really sweet…but you’re gonna hurt your career if you run home every time you miss me, baby.” She stopped and looked up at me, her expression turning serious. “What do you mean you’re tired? Are you really okay? Did something happen while you were out there? You didn’t overdo it, did you? I know you do that sometimes…” I cut her off by pressing my lips to hers.

“Sweetie, it’s fine. I think I might have taken on a little too much at once, that’s all. But it’s nothing a little bit of R&R won’t cure. I promise. Now what’s with the cleaning? I thought we were in the process of moving, doesn’t that mean we shouldn’t clean until after all our stuff’s out?"

“The water pipe’s been making sounds since this morning,” she told me in a muffled voice. “One of the maintenance guys came and looked at it, but he said there wasn’t much he could do unless it actually bursts or whatever. And I dunno, it kinda scared me a little. I know it’s stupid but I hate anticipating stuff like that when I don’t know when it’s going to happen, you know?” She looked at me a little worriedly after she’d admitted this, and granted, it was a weird phobia. But I found that it didn’t matter, since I understood exactly what she meant.

“So you were mopping so you’d be doing something in case it happened?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she mumbled. “Like, I wouldn’t be focusing on it, you know? But I think maybe we should get our stuff moved as soon as we can.”

“Okay,” I replied, but I was almost falling asleep.

“Come on, let’s get you in bed. Naptime,” she said in what I assumed was an attempt at an authoritative tone. I didn’t have the energy to argue, and let her lead me into the bedroom.

I woke up a few hours later to find some stuff from the living room missing. Most of the wall décor, a lot of Alice’s knick-knacks and other decorative stuff was gone. I looked around blearily for a minute before she saw me. Her grin lit up her face, and she walked over and hugged me.

“Hey,” she said softly. “I had some moving guys come over and take some things. I figured they could come back in the morning…if you want to go furniture shopping with me then, I mean.”