Nobody spoke for a moment.
“We live here together.”
Then Grace pushed her chair back.
“So what, exactly, are you saying?”
Harold answered without looking at me first.
“You can stay until your apartment is ready.”
Grace waited.
“You can stay until your apartment is ready.”
“But you knock. You stay out of our drawers. You don’t touch Tina’s things. And our bedroom door goes back today.”
Grace folded her arms.
“And if I don’t agree?”
“We’ll help you find a hotel.”
Her eyebrows went up.
“You’d send your own mother to a hotel?”
“And if I don’t agree?”
“I’d rather you stay here.” His voice stayed calm. “But only if you respect the people who live here.”
Grace looked at the doorknob.
Then at the hallway.
Then at me.
For the first time since she’d arrived, she didn’t have an immediate answer.
She didn’t have an immediate answer.
About an hour later, I was loading the dishwasher when I heard metal clink upstairs.
I found Grace in the hallway.
She was holding Harold’s screwdriver.
The bedroom door was still leaning against the wall.
She was holding Harold’s screwdriver.
