Alex thought of Daniel and his father moving around each other like faraway planets, their orbits never quite touching, how different this house was, with its silence and its grief, from her family’s apartment, loud and messy and full of love. She would not have said she had an easy childhood, but it had not been like this. Yi Hua Lou, her grandparents had named their restaurant, and in English it was something of harmony, something of home. “Anytime,” she said. “Well,” he said, “see you next week, Huang.”
