Over the course of our affair, maroon became a code word of sorts, a stand-in for devotion. Are you feeling maroon? I might text him after a long day with no contact. He would write me back promptly: Maroon on my mind. He would tell me when and where to meet him for dinner, then add: I have a reservation for two under Mr. Maroon. It was the closest he came to saying he loved me. I have a craving, he would text me at two or three in the morning, when he’d been drinking alone, the one person still up in his household. Only maroon will do.