I held my breath and lifted the lid.
But there were no car keys inside, nothing like what I'd been picturing.
Just a small acrylic keychain stamped with the same brand's logo, lying there.
"You said you liked this brand last time. There's no car, but a keychain's nice too, right? You can keep it on you every day."
Theo reached out, ready to pull me in the way he always had.
It had always gone like this before.
The smallest gesture from Theo and I'd soften, let it go.
But this time, I suddenly didn't want to.
I was tired. I didn't want to keep talking myself back into it.
I looked at that tiny keychain, and I laughed.
"Funny. I didn't know this brand sold the keychains separately."
Theo's face went cold.
"I know today upset you, but do you have to count every little thing like this?"
"I've told you so many times. I've always thought of Shirley as my own little sister. She's not well, so it's only right that we give a little more to her. Can't you be more reasonable about it?"
"What did I even say? Can't I just ask?"
I held his eyes, steady.
Theo choked on it, started to explain something.
Then the phone rang.
Shirley.
"Why aren't you asleep yet?"
"Can't sleep? Put on some soft music, something soothing. It's okay, I'll stay on with you the whole time…"
His voice dropped low on purpose as he turned and walked out to the balcony.
I went back to the bedroom and called the bank, reported my salary card lost on an emergency basis.
When Theo came back, he found me lying with my back to him.
He peeled back the corner of the blanket and lay down beside me.
He eased closer, trying to slip an arm around me from behind.
Without a word, without any sign of it, I shifted toward the edge of the bed.
He stared at my back for a long moment, then let out a soft sigh and turned away.
I didn't sleep all night.
When I woke the next morning, Theo was already out of the room.
Two takeout boxes sat on the table.
One seafood wonton soup, one bowl of plain rice porridge.
Without thinking, I picked up a spoon and reached for the seafood wonton soup, the one closest to me.
The spoon was almost in the bowl when a hand slapped it away, hard.
"That one's yours."
Theo pointed at the rice porridge.
"I got this specially for you. Even had them put extra scallions in it."
He took the box out of my hand, set the lid back on carefully, and tucked it into an insulated bag.
Only then did it sink in. The seafood wonton soup was for Shirley.
"I don't eat century egg."
Theo frowned, plainly annoyed.
"Shirley's sick. You're going to fight her over a single breakfast?"
"Rebecca, what is it with you and food? Like you never saw a meal in your last life?"
I didn't say anything else.
I set the spoon down without a word and went back to the bedroom to change.
Maybe because I seemed so low, Theo actually offered to drive me to work, something he never did.
I'd asked him to drive me plenty of times before.
He'd always turned me down, said it wasn't convenient because he had to pick up and drop off Shirley.
I opened the passenger door, and the motion of getting in stalled.
Throw pillow, thin blanket, sunglasses, water bottle, snacks…
The little passenger seat was buried under things that belonged to Shirley.
I shut the door.
"Never mind. It's too crammed. I'll just take an Uber."
My car had gone in for servicing only yesterday.
Theo blinked, caught off guard.
"What's gotten into you? Don't you usually beg me shamelessly to drive you?"
