I almost didn't wear the black dress.

After the concert, I'd spent two days in the kind of quiet that isn't peaceful, the kind that sits on your chest. I went to work, came home, made dinner, and went to bed. I'd been civil to Ethan, who hadn't mentioned the concert and neither had I. We'd orbited each other in the house with the careful distance of two people who both know something happened and have agreed, without saying so, not to address it yet.

On the morning of the business dinner, I stood in front of my closet for a long time.

The black dress was there. Open back,...