Beautiful Damage

Somewhere Else Again

Ashlyn noticed Toby’s night schedule before he ever explained it.

At first it was just pieces. His boots disappearing from the mat by the door after ten. The bed staying cold on his side long after midnight. The sound of his truck sometimes coming back before dawn and sometimes not until she was already awake, standing in the bathroom with tired eyes and toothpaste foam in the corner of her mouth.

Whenever she asked where he had been, Toby always had something ready. Work. Helping out. Covering something. The answers were never big enough to start a fight on their own, but after a while that became the problem. Everything he said felt shaved down to the smallest possible truth.

By Thursday, the distance had settled into the apartment like another piece of furniture. It sat with them at