He looked at me.
“Shut up,” he said.
I hadn’t said anything yet.
That got me laughing for the first time all day.
Mounting the TV took longer than it should have because Devon believed in reading instructions only once a problem had already happened. We argued over studs, measurements, wall anchors, and the basic dignity of hiring help. Leisha came in twice to ask if we were alive and once just to stand there and watch Devon act like he knew what he was doing.
“Pass me the leveler,” I said.
“It’s right there.”
“That’s a screwdriver.”
“It’s tool-adjacent.”
I looked at him. “Leisha.”
She leaned in from the doorway. “Yes?”
“Come get your man.”
She laughed so hard she had to grab the frame. Devon told both of us to go to hell.
Eventually, the TV got on the wall without killing either of us or taking half the plaster with it.
That counted as victory.
After that, we collapsed onto the couch with controllers in hand and Madden 26 lighting up the room.
“This still don’t feel real,” Devon said, leaning forward like the screen might change if he got close enough. “New one drop in days too.”
“You too old to be this excited.”
“And yet.”
The game started. Trash talk came natural. Wings hit the coffee table. Leisha disappeared upstairs talking about leaving us to our little boy joy, and the second she was out of sight, Devon looked at me and grinned.
“You saw nothing.”
“I saw enough.”
He pointed a wing at me. “Mind your business.”
“Can’t. It’s in the room.”
That got him shaking his head, but he was smiling into the game now, and I caught myself thinking that maybe this was what it looked like when a man stopped acting like being settled had taken something from him. Maybe the right woman just let him stop performing every version of himself except the real one.
That thought sat with me longer than I wanted.
My phone buzzed on the couch cushion beside me.
I looked down too fast.
Talia: Just got out. With Kendra. I’ll holler later.
That should have eased something.
