THE SURFACE ARRANGEMENT
Tenderness, scheduled and invoiced
On 14 February, the set menu becomes compulsory, the supermarket grows a ceiling of red foil hearts, and the group chat asks for evidence by nine. By the fifteenth, kindness is expected to go back to arriving quietly, where you can turn it into a joke before anyone notices you wanted it.
February has a dress code for tenderness and a surcharge for following it.
