the timer said three minutes

The box said three minutes, so you set a timer like it was an exam, and then neither of you could stay in the bathroom or leave it. He kept picking things up and putting them down again. You watched the second hand do its slowest ever lap of the kitchen clock.

Two lines. He made a sound like a hiccup and sat down on the edge of the bath, and you told nobody for nine weeks and walked around the city like two people carrying a lantern. She is four months old now. The timer is still in your phone, three minutes, labelled nothing.