The lit face across the table

Your partner is telling you about a meeting. It's a story with a build-up. Somebody said something, and somebody else reacted, and the point is coming. Your phone is on the table beside your plate and it lights up, and your eyes go to it, and the notification is nothing, a delivery update, and your eyes come back. Your partner has paused. You say "go on", and they go on, but shorter, and the point when it comes is delivered flat, and you say "that's mad", and they say "yeah", and the story is over.

Or you're at the park, on the bench, and your daughter is on the climbing frame. "Watch this." You look up. She does the thing. "Did you see?" You saw the end of it. "Watch this." This time you're mid-message, and you say "I'm watching" without looking, and she does the thing, and she doesn't ask if you saw. Or a friend you haven't seen for months is across a cafe table telling you their marriage is in trouble, and your phone buzzes on the wood, and you turn it over without reading it, and they saw you turn it over, and they say "anyway", and change the subject.

These are invented, but I'd guess yours are close. Some words for the rest of the book. The glance is the look down at the screen while someone is talking to you. The half-listen is what you're doing while your eyes are on the phone, hearing the words with the rest of you elsewhere. The drop is the moment the person talking sees your face change and loses you, which chapter 4 is about, and which they feel before you've registered looking down. The tug is the pull towards the phone that arrives during a story, which chapter 16 is about. Away is where the phone goes when someone's talking, which is out of your hands and out of your sight, and not face down on the table. The look up is the small act of putting it away and giving your face back.

Before you go on, do one thing. For one evening, count. Every time someone talks to you and your eyes go to a screen, that's one. Count separately every time you say "sorry, what?" or "say that again", and every time someone says your name twice. Don't change anything yet. Just get the numbers, and notice which of the three is the biggest surprise.