I opened the door but did not invite her in.
Some apologies need to stand in the weather first.
She cried.
I believed the embarrassment was real.
I was not sure yet about the remorse.
Those are not the same thing.
She said she had been stressed, that the party had gotten away from her, that she had not understood.
I listened.
Then I asked her what part she had failed to understand.
The blanket.
The work.
The woman who made it.
Or the fact that everyone in that room was expected to laugh because she did.
She had no good answer.
To her credit, she did not invent one.
Kyle stood behind her on the porch steps, quiet.
That mattered more than anything he might have said.
I told them the bonds would stay with me.
