You interrupted me mid-smile with some nonsense about the marketplace and a man who sold fish. All the guys laugh at your jokes. The homemade cookies were all gone and it was just you me and an empty plate. I told you to eat the sour apple green and omniscient on the table but you ignored it and talked about the raging wars of Real Estate and Health Insurance. You were the last to leave and you took hair ribbon with you to tie up loose ends, you joked. I half smiled and offered to take you to work in the morning. But you quietly ignored my question and found your way to the door, foot-wedged, holding onto it and it was in that moment that I knew I had supplied the noose. (You should've taken the apple) [Kinda nonsense, kinda very much too real.] L L