When she came out, she told me she had completed intake and could stay. A staff member helped her carry the parcels inside.
“Thank you for coming,” Tessa said.
“I’m sorry you had to ask twice for someone to take you seriously.”
She nodded. She didn’t tell me it was fine, and I didn’t ask her to.
Afterward, I called Imogen. I wanted Caleb to return the key while she was present, and I wanted the lock changed. We arranged it for that afternoon. Then I told Caleb when to come.
He arrived with the key already loose in his hand.
Imogen stood behind the reception desk with the ledger closed beside her. I hadn’t told her where Tessa had gone. She only needed to know that the parcels had been collected and that Caleb’s permission to enter my apartment was ending.
“Is she all right?” he asked.
“She completed intake. Her things are with her.”
“Where?”
“That’s hers to tell you.”
He looked at Imogen, then lowered his voice. “Can we at least do this privately?”
“We’re not discussing your sister’s marriage,” I said. “We’re discussing my key.”
He set it on the desk but kept one finger on it.
“I wasn’t bringing people here for fun, Nora.”
“I know why they were here. I also know those four Tuesdays were my evening shifts. You collected every delivery with her name on it. None of this was a misunderstanding.”
“No.”
“Tell Imogen what you told me.”
He rubbed his forehead. I almost stopped him. I didn’t like seeing him embarrassed in front of someone who knew us. But he had let me stand in that lobby defending meetings I knew nothing about.
“I said they were coworkers,” he told her. “They weren’t. And I told my sister Nora had agreed when she hadn’t.”
Imogen nodded once. “Then we’ll remove the access arrangement.”
Caleb took his finger off the key. I picked it up.
“I thought you’d interfere,” he said to me.
“You could have kept her plans private and kept people out of my apartment. You had that choice.”
He looked down at the bare place on the desk.
“We can work on this.”
“I’m ending it, Caleb. Not postponing it.”
He paid Imogen the rekeying charge without another argument. She counted the money and gave him a receipt. Then she brought the replacement cylinder upstairs while he waited by reception.
I watched her remove the old cylinder. The screws went into a little plastic tray she had brought with her. It was ordinary work, noisier than I expected. When she finished, I tested the new key twice. The old spare no longer turned.
We went back down together. Caleb was still beside the desk. Imogen confirmed the change was complete, and he left. I didn’t follow him outside.
That evening I spoke to Tessa. I told her I wouldn’t share her location, including with her parents, and I meant it. I also told her there would be no more meetings or parcel storage at my apartment.
“I can care about what happens to you without keeping this arrangement,” I said.
“I know,” she answered. “I won’t ask him to arrange anything with you.”
After we hung up, I put the chair Caleb had pulled out back against the table. I still regretted what I had said to Tessa about her marriage. Ending my relationship didn’t erase that. Keeping Caleb wouldn’t have repaired it either.
I made supper and carried my plate into the sitting room. The new key lay on the table where I had put it. I moved it to my own key ring, then sat down to eat while the food was still hot.
