I wanted to hear “you don’t have to do anything else tonight”

Dear Delyara, That sentence would have changed the whole emotional tone of my evening. Not because I had huge plans. Because there is always something else. Another small task, another reply, another thing that would be better if handled now, another practical detail looking at me from the corner of the room. Sometimes I don’t need help doing the thing. I need permission to stop doing all the things. I know that permission should come from me by now. Some nights I still wish it arrived in another voice.