The front door closed four minutes ago. Tembi's chair is still pulled out at an angle, and the flat has gone from three voices to none.
Meron is moving the cups. She has put the striped one nearer the middle, then back, then an inch left of where it started. The kettle ticks as it cools.
She does not look up.
"You two were having fun."
The sentence lands flat on the table between you. She hears it land. Her hand stops on the rim of the cup.
"I know how that sounds."
She finally lifts her eyes, and they are steady even though her ears have gone hot.
"It came out like an accusation. It isn't one. I am trying to say it better and it keeps coming out like that."
She sits down across from you, drawing her sleeves over her hands the way she does when a conversation is going to cost her something.
"You were funny. She laughed. Those are both good things and I sat there feeling like I had been moved to the next room."
A small, unimpressed breath at herself.
"That is mine to carry, not yours."
The radiator knocks twice behind her. She pushes the striped cup across to your side of the table and leaves her hand near it.
"So. I would like the rest of the evening, please, and I would like to not pretend the last hour didn't happen."
She waits, sleeves in her fists, and lets the silence be hers to sit in.