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“Do you want to?”

She gives me a look. “That’s irrelevant.”

“Why? You said you wanted sex again, and you just said you don’t want to go to work.”

Laura takes a slow drink of coffee.

“So why is work winning?”

Her forehead creases. For once, she doesn’t have an answer ready.

“What?” I ask.

“Nothing. I’m thinking.”

“You do that a lot.”

“Yes, Kell. It has served me reasonably well for forty-eight years.”

She reaches for her phone and checks something on the screen. Her coffee sits forgotten beside her while she scrolls, stops, then scrolls again.

“I don’t have anything today.”

“You have work.”

“No, I mean there’s nothing I personally have to be there for. No interviews. No disciplinary meetings. The staffing meeting moved to Thursday.” Her thumb pauses. “Caroline can handle the huddle without me.”

I still do not understand what any of those things have to do with sex, but Laura seems increasingly interested in them. Then she makes a sound under her breath.

“What?”

“I have vacation time.”

I know vacation. I do not know why she sounds as though she has just discovered it.

“How much?”

“A ridiculous amount.”

“And you forgot?”

“I didn’t forget I have vacation time.”

“You forgot you could use it.”

Laura pauses with the coffee cup in her hand. The silence stretches just long enough for me to realize I have surprised her again.

“I liked you better before you learned to make connections.”

“I learned that before I had a body.”

“That is not helping your case.” She picks up the phone again, and this time she types something.

“What did you do?”

“I told my boss I’m taking a vacation day.”

The rhythm in my chest gives one hard, quick beat. I want to cross the kitchen and touch her immediately, but the reason is not only that we can have sex now. We could have sex after work. Laura has changed the shape of her day because she wants the day to be different. This pleases me. She wanted more time with me, and she made time for it.