"Reza gave me a cookie for the road," Celeste said. "He is a better safety net than you are yet. That is information, not a verdict."
Gideon accepted the information like a man accepting a building code: nonnegotiable, faintly humbling, ultimately protective. "Christmas Eve," he said. "June is making a roast that may or may not obey thermodynamics. Hattie wants you there for fox-book recommendations in person. No star talk unless you start it. No renovations. Just food and the two trees learning to share a room."
Celeste almost said no, because almost saying no had become a way to test whether she still owned her mouth. Then she said, "I will come for two hours. I will bring bread. I will leave before the night tries to become a movie."
"Deal," Gideon said.
Christmas Eve afternoon arrived with a thin sun that made the snow look temporarily forgiven. Celeste baked bread in her own oven because bringing store bread to June's roast felt like a failure of sincerity, and sincerity, she had decided, was the only currency left that did not bounce. Tully knocked midway through the second rise.
"You are going to the architect," he said. Not a question.
"For two hours."
"Take Pocket's blessing." Tully held up the cat briefly; Pocket looked unimpressed by blessings as a concept. "And remember: leaving on time is not rudeness. Leaving on time is how people stay welcome."
"You should write advice columns."
"I write complaint forms in my head," Tully said. "Same skill set."
Celeste walked to Gideon's building with the bread wrapped in a clean towel. The doorman smiled as if he had been briefed. Upstairs, the apartment smelled like rosemary and oven heat and the bright pitch of evergreen. The big tree dominated the room with lights like a small city. Button held its corner with the paper brave-heart and a new ornament: a fox cut from cardboard, courtesy of Hattie, who took her themes seriously.
Hattie opened the door before Gideon could. "Did you bring fox books?"
"I brought a list and two picture books from my own shelf," Celeste said. "Library copies would have been overdue by morning on principle."