had not cleared after earlier attempts with boiling water, baking soda, and salt. He slipped on a pair of gray sweats and went to work on the clog while Nina folded clothes on the bed.
Again it hit her, how strange it was: a scene as normal as could be, but with a new cast member in place, as if Simon were Glen’s understudy.
“How’s the drain coming?” Nina asked as she laid one of his polo shirts flat on the bed, folded the sleeves back, smoothed the fabric with her hands, carefully folded the sides, and then folded it in half, trying to match the way Simon did it, remembering the instructions on the YouTube video she had watched. Admittedly, she felt a bit insecure, oddly territorial about domains that had once been entirely her own. She had never felt this way with Glen—a need to keep a spotless kitchen and an organized, tidy home, now that the chaos of moving was long gone. But for reasons unclear to her, Nina felt a silent judgment from Simon at times. There was nothing ever spoken, no quip to make her prickle, but a glance, a look that implied unmet expectations.
Any little thing out of place—a picture hanging crooked, a shoe not on the shoe rack, a salad not made, a bed left rumpled—he would tend to it with a resigned air, as if to say this little fragment of disarray had everything to do with her job, their main source of contention.
And so, Nina found herself researching the best ways to fold a polo shirt, if for nothing else than to chip away at the doubts building up about her domestic abilities. This business of messing up Simon’s dinner with the superintendent had rattled her. It wasn’t like her to forget a plan. She didn’t even remember hearing about it until it was too late to alter her schedule, all because she’d been preoccupied with work—or at least that’s what she told herself, echoing Simon’s words.
If Simon held any lingering resentment about the dinner, he masked it well. Upon his return home, he’d talked glowingly about the school, support for his curriculum, additional money for the robotics team, and the improving test scores across the district. He also shared his worry about the growing epidemic of vaping among young people, another topic that had come up at dinner.
“Have you talked about vaping with Connor and Maggie?” Simon asked from the bathroom.
“No,” Nina said, feeling guilty because she had become well-versed on the issue thanks to her clients.
“It’s really a massive problem,” he said. “The THC in the oils these kids are using is way more concentrated than the stuff we had, and a single JUULpod has about the same nicotine level as a pack of cigarettes. Can you believe that?”
Nina could, because she had read up on it.
“You really should talk to the kids about the dangers,” Simon said.
Nina heard: You’re not being a good mother.
“Or I can,” he added. “If you’d prefer … at least to Connor. You wouldn’t believe all the ways that kids hide this stuff. You have to keep an eye out for behavior changes—moodiness, slipping grades, asking for money.” Simon laughed to himself from the bathroom. “Look who I’m telling, an expert.”
An expert who hasn’t talked about it with her own kids, thought Nina.
“Speaking of behavior changes, have you noticed anything strange about Maggie?” Nina asked.
Half of Simon’s body appeared in the bathroom’s open doorway. He rubbed a hand dry on his sweats.
“Besides acting like I’m the worst person in the world? No.”
“She’s been … different lately,” Nina said. “There’s something up with her.”
“Talk to her about it,” Simon suggested, as if Nina hadn’t considered that possibility.
“Yeah, I know, and I will, I’m just asking if you’ve noticed any changes.”
“She still hates me, Nina, and I don’t think that is going to change anytime soon.”
Nina heard the hurt in Simon’s words and her heart ached for him. He was trying so hard to make it work for everyone, Maggie included. Once again that voice rose up inside her, blaming her for not having paved a better path. She wondered how she could have made it easier for everyone. Could she have better prepared Maggie for the transition? Why hadn’t she waited longer to take a job?
Simon returned to the sink and Nina to her laundry when she heard him cry out, “Ah, got you, you bugger!”
A moment later, Nina was in the bathroom, observing water from the