The Porch Light We Never Unlinked

I moved out in March. He kept the house, I kept the dog, and we split the smart home account in the sense that we talked about it once and never actually did the paperwork. So my phone still gets a ping every night at 11:47. Porch light, warm setting, forty percent. Our old goodnight scene, the one we built together our first year, back when the porch light dimming meant come to bed, not one of us was staying somewhere else now.

Tonight I stood on my new balcony and watched my own phone dim to that same forty percent, and thought about him seeing the same notification on his end, same time, every night. Neither of us has disabled it. I checked once, a few months ago, hovered over remove automation, and put the phone down like the button was hot.

I tell myself it's just leftover code nobody bothered to delete. But I've started timing my night around it anyway. Brush my teeth right after, like something is actually finishing.

If I turned it off I'd know for sure neither of us is waiting on the other end of a porch light. I'd rather not know that yet. So I let it dim, every night, and let it be the account's fault that we can't let go.