Page 98 of The Wild Beneath

She’s still distracted. He can tell.

Is she working too much? They’ve hardly seen each other this week.

“I didn’t have a chance to eat today.” She picks up the menu.

He sometimes worries that her work will devour her whole. She has a string of shifts every day this week. They line up like dominoes on the calendar, tumbling into one another. She works, showers, sleeps. Rinse, repeat.

This isn’t new but it’s worse than usual. He can’t put his finger on it, but recently there’s a deeper absence about her. He doesn’t like it at all. Maybe it’s because her life is more complexthan it ever was onAmphitrite. Day in, day out, she’s getting lost in it. Or is she legitimately missing something, like a vitamin?

“How about a burger?” he says. “You’re a little pale.”

“I haven’t had anything green today.”

“Or mussels. They’re the special.”

“I’m not pale,” she says.

He makes a mental note to suggest she see a doctor, again. She’ll hate that. Doctors never want to see other doctors. But maybe she needs bloodwork and an objective head-to-toe once-over?

The server is back, pouring ice water. “Have we had enough time with the menus?”

“I’ll have the mussels,” Evan says.

“Arugula and fennel salad, please,” Annie says.

“Make it two salads and two orders of mussels.” Evan hands over the menu.

“I’m not that hungry—­”

“I’ll eat them if you don’t.”

Two women shuffle into the next table. One is wearing a trench coat and dangling feather earrings. Her voice is throaty and commanding: “Then he had the gall to tell me the whole house has shifted on the foundation,” she says.

“Jesus,” the other woman says. Her faux-fur vest brushes up against Annie’s arm as she sits down.

“They’ll have to repair the entire thing, down to the studs.”

“Do you want to move tables?” Evan whispers. “No big deal.”

“No, it’s fine. I’m fine.” Annie jiggles her knee.

“I told Domenic about that crack over the front door,” Faux-fur says.

“You know how close we are to the cliff!” says Dangly-earring. “God knows. The structural engineer said the frame isn’t even tied to the foundation.”

“That doesn’t meet code.”

“Just floating there!”

“The house could fall. It’s just a matter of time.”

Evan tries to get Annie’s attention. “Johann is coming over tomorrow to fix our sink.”

“Can you tell him the shower’s dripping?” Annie says. “And the toilet is still running. He said he’d come last week.”

“He’ll come. I’m keeping the faith.” From across the table, he takes her hands into his.

“We’re living at Domenic’s parents for now,” Dangly-earring says. “My mother-in-law is batshit crazy. So fucking neurotic. But we’re getting new heated floors out of the deal.”