A small house.

One closet.

Slowly, my half began infringing on his.

One inch turned into two, then two into five.

He never mentioned it.

Just double-hung his shirts.

Squeezed more things into allotted dresser drawers.

Packed up rarely-worn items for Goodwill.

He called it down-sizing.

I called it love.

Susan Gale Wickes lives in Indiana. In addition to writing and reading short stories, she enjoys cartoon captioning and has won the New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest.