He didn’t read her most recent book. He read the first two stories and he left it open on the coffee table on top of a stack of New Yorkers, which was how he always left his place in books, and it stayed there and stayed there and stayed there and time went by, a month two three months, the open book stayed there for three months four months some long amount of time and she told herself some stories that he didn’t read as much as he used to which was true but it was fucking dedicated to him this book and it stayed there and stayed there until the cover read Your Husband Does Not Want to Read Your Book at which time she couldn’t look at it anymore so she put a bookmark in it and put it on the shelf and it wasn’t looked at or mentioned again by either of them. But look, maybe he had his own list of things. Maybe on his list of things was She never comes by my shop to see what I’m working on. This was known to be on his list, actually. Who is she to say it’s not the same? Maybe he didn’t read her book because she didn’t come to his shop and this is just how it goes, things not being said.