“Ayala, they’re not ready to move. You heard them as well as I did. I don’t think you should be forcing this”

Dini’s eyes widened when she walked in from shopping to find Shuki sprawled on the couch.

“Um, isn’t the cab coming in, like, an hour?”

He lifted his arm above his head to look at his watch.

“Hour and twenty minutes.”

She glanced around the empty living room.  “Are you — packed?”

“Just about…” he sat up, stretching,  “…to start.” He grinned at her look of exasperation.  “I was just waiting for you to come home to tell me where to find clean socks.”

She rolled her eyes, but couldn’t help but grin back. As she walked over to the still-empty suitcase that she’d brought up last night from their storage room, she felt a pang. This trip had been arranged so quickly; she still couldn’t wrap her mind around it.

“Don’t forget to pack your new suit — you know, the one you bought for Nussi’s bar mitzvah.  You’ve got to dress to impress, all these choshuv business meetings.” She followed him into their bedroom, watching as he began opening his dresser drawers. “Remind me again what day you have that meeting with those deli board guys in Monsey? I’ll have to do my hafrashas challah that day as a zechus.” She gave a little laugh. “And for sure when you have your meeting with Schiller. OMG, that’ll be, like, the whole sefer Tehillim. Me and the CT volunteers. I’ll call a special session.”

Shuki’s head was now in his closet, but he turned around to shoot her a brief, quizzical glance.  She blushed. She was babbling, she realized. She never babbled.

“You okay?”

She twisted her hands together. “Yeah, of course. I’m just… well, hello, you have a flight in four hours and you’re not even packed! I thought at least one of us should be nervous here, and since you clearly aren’t….”

Shuki raised an eyebrow. She twisted her hands harder. It was a stupid joke, and, worse, a pathetic lie.