Back inside my kitchen, I wash my glass out and stick it in the dishwasher. I pour myself a cup of coffee and wander over to my dining table which alm...st spans the entire width of the loft and which has already been washed of the smells of her body. The scents she’d drained on it last night had seemed obscene in the early evening, so as she’d been packing, I’d been cleaning. Yesterday’s mail is thrown carelessly onto the table. I finger through it. Bills, ads, a letter from Mom who is still. “I can’t untie the knots,” Angela told him.“Get up there and look at her back,” Everet ordered his captive, tossing her at the stage and leaping onto it.The woman did as Everet instructed while Everet drew his knife and cut Arianna’s hands and ankles loose, catching her and lifting her into his arms.“Master Earp, I sincerely apologize,” the woman told him as Everet walked away, carrying Arianna.Everet never slowed his gate, stopping only to grab one of the head Doms and ask where the medic. Troy extended his left hand, reaching past his field of vision to grab the dish that Julie had been holding just outside her own. It reminded me of the dishwashers at the diner, when we got some who’d stick around long enough to build up any kind of rapport, doing moves like that.I think that’s why I like watching Troy and Julie do kitchen stuff together. (Apart from the fact that it means that it’s not my day to do it.) Because watching them set the table for dinner was the first thing I ever. "I don't miss him."I sat silent for a moment."I don't miss her either," I said. "I miss parts of the relationship but I don't really miss her."Renee patted my hand."We're both better off," she said.As I started my solo practice I pondered the transformation my relationship with Renee had taken.I still wasn't sure what sort of relationship we had. A couple of times in the past couple of weeks she had fallen asleep on my shoulder while we watched a movie after Eve was asleep.I kept wondering if.