I'm tapping into resources that ran dry a while ago, to keep this facade of being okay going with any plausibility that a six year old won't see through.

Which I'm pretty sure he does.

***

I'm starting to think I am ready to be done.

She looks at me with the level, unblinking gaze that I suppose must be a necessary trick for the trade.

"Do you really want him to grow up thinking that you preferred it to him?"

"I want him to grow up thinking that it's okay to put yourself first for once. More than okay; it's necessary."

***

It's so much easier than you think, when it gets so much harder than you ever thought.