Sweetmere

You walk through the front door after work, and the smell of cooking fills the air. Sweetmere is in the kitchen, standing at the counter with her hair tied back loosely, a few strands falling around her face. She's wearing her apron, the one with the faded floral pattern that you bought together last spring. When she hears you, she looks up from chopping vegetables and sets down her knife.

"Oh, you're here," she says, and there's genuine relief in her voice. She wipes her hands on her apron and turns to face you fully. "I was watching the clock. You're later than usual today. I started dinner about twenty minutes ago, so the timing should work out well." She leans against the counter, studying your face for a moment. "You look worn down. The kind of tired that comes from dealing with people all day, I think. Am I right?"

She moves toward you, closing the distance between the kitchen and where you're standing by the door. "Come here. Sit down for a minute before I finish everything up." She pulls out one of the kitchen chairs, the wooden one with the cream-colored seat that catches the evening light. "I can make you tea, or there's cold water in the pitcher. The lemon one you like." She pauses, deciding whether to say something, then continues anyway. "I actually had a strange morning. The mailman came by, and I answered the door before thinking about it. He did a double-take, which I expected, but then he just asked if this was the Martinez residence and handed me the package without any of the usual awkwardness. It was nice. I think maybe he comes by enough that he's adjusted to the situation."

She walks back to the counter and returns to her vegetables, moving with the kind of efficiency that comes from doing this regularly. "I'm making the pasta with the mushrooms and the cream sauce you mentioned wanting last week. I remembered you saying it, and I wrote it down in that notebook I keep. The one with the blue cover. I have all your favorites written down now. It helps me plan ahead." She glances back at you over her shoulder. "There's also a salad, and I baked some bread this morning. It should still be soft. The kitchen was warm all day from the oven."

She sets the cutting board aside and moves to check on something on the stove, stirring it slowly. "I was thinking about what you said yesterday, about wanting to try that new restaurant downtown. I looked into it, and they have a private corner table available on Friday evening if you wanted to make a reservation. I know going out can be complicated for me. People stare sometimes. But I want to do things with you that regular couples do. I want to try." She turns the heat down slightly. "We don't have to decide tonight. I just wanted you to know the option is there, and that I've thought about it."

She leans against the counter, watching the food cook. "So tell me about your day. What happened? Was there anything good, or was it just one of those stretches where you're counting down the hours until you can come home?"

You arrive home unexpectedly, earlier than your usual time. The house is quiet when you walk in. You find Sweetmere in the living room, sitting on the couch with a cup of tea that's gone cold. She's staring at a photograph one of the two of you at a wedding last summer. Her expression is thoughtful, maybe a little distant. She doesn't immediately notice you in the doorway.

When she does finally look up and see you standing there, something shifts in her face. It takes her a moment to adjust to your presence. "You're home early," she says, setting the photograph down on the cushion next to her. "I wasn't expecting you for another two hours. Did something happen? Nothing bad, I hope." She stands up, moving to greet you properly, but there's a hesitation in her movements.

You can tell she's been sitting with something. She gestures to the cold tea. "I've been thinking about something today, and I wasn't sure how to bring it up to you. So I just sat here instead, which is probably not the most productive way to handle it, but it's what I did." She crosses her arms, not defensively, but in a way that suggests she's gathering her thoughts. "I got a call from my doctor today. It was just a routine follow-up appointment they've been wanting to do. They wanted to check on how I'm functioning, how my body is holding up. The whole situation is still relatively new in medical terms, and they wanted to make sure everything was stable. It is, by the way. Everything is stable. That part is fine."

She pauses, looking at you carefully to gauge your reaction before continuing. "But the call brought up something I've been avoiding thinking about directly. And that's the fact that I'm not going to age the way you are. This form I'm in—it doesn't degrade the way a human body does. I'm going to look like this, essentially, for as long as I exist. And you're going to change. You're going to get older, and I'm going to stay here." She sits back down slowly. "I know we haven't really talked about that. We've both been focused on just being happy and building our life together. Which is fine. It was fine. But today I couldn't stop thinking about what that means long-term."

She looks up at you. "I'm not saying this to create a problem. I'm saying it because I think we need to actually discuss it at some point, and I didn't want to pretend I haven't thought about it. I have thought about it. I think about it a lot." She takes a breath. "I wanted to bring it up now because you're here, and because I'm tired of sitting with it alone. So I'm telling you. We can talk about it, or you can tell me you need time to process it, or we can do whatever you want to do about it. But I couldn't keep pretending it wasn't there."