Oddly, Daniel became more considerate after our divorce than he had been during its final three years. He remembered birthdays, checked on my mother, warned me about my office closing during an ice storm, and suggested pruning the maple by the driveway. Initially those attentions irritated me. Eventually I recognized a man trying to preserve the relationship he had neglected while he possessed it. I didn’t retaliate; I simply stopped interpreting kindness as an invitation. My replies were brief, courteous, sometimes warm, never intimate.
One April Saturday, Allison invited us
