Chapter 20: New Terms

He slept on the couch for two nights.

On the third night I came into the kitchen at ten and found him at the table with a legal pad and a pen.

He had drawn a line down the middle of the page.

"What's that?" I said.

"The terms," Nathan said. "I think they need amending."

I sat across from him.

The oil lamps were lit, because I'd stopped trusting the power.

"Go on," I said.

He turned the pad around.

At the top, in his square engineer's hand, it said: Rule 1: No lies.

Underneath it he had written: Add. If I can't say it yet, I say "not yet" and a day. I come back on that day.

"Not just 'I can't tell you,'" I said.

"A date," he said. "So you never wait without knowing how long."

I read the second one.

Rule 2: No hand on you to settle an argument.

Underneath: Keep. Hands are for wanting. Never winning.

I read it twice.

The third rule said: He comes to her.

Underneath he had crossed out the next line, and written another.

"She comes to him too," I read aloud. "When she wants."

"If you want."

"You've left that last part in," I said.

"I'm trying not to assume."

I took the pen out of his hand and added a fourth line at the bottom.

Rule 4: Tell each other when the smile isn't real.

He read it, and his eyes lifted.

"That's the one that matters," he said.

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