"I could tell them that I can't go. This time."

"Fine," she says. Her face softens into a smile. Her pout forms a kiss. It burns his mouth. He wishes he was more of a man.

Judy takes his underwear out of the suitcase, rearranges it in neat stacks in his top dresser drawer. She closes the suitcase, now empty, and puts it near the closet door, near where Daniel stands in defeat, and smooths the spread on the bed to erase any doubts in his mind.