Cycles

"I'll be gone again in July," Greg said over the noise of the dishwasher.

He was looking out the kitchen sink window and Mary couldn't see his eyes. She looked to the calendar to see the breath of days between then and July, still months away.

"I don't know why you couldn't have just waited till June to tell me," she said. "July seems so far away. You'll probably change your mind by then."

"I won't," he said, still turned away from her. The dishwasher whirred into rinse mode. He finished the last of his coffee and set his daytime mug into the sink. He walked past her into the living room, but she could only stare at the mug in the sink.

Well, then I'll make it my mission not to care by then, she thought.