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Ava could not bear the thought of a two-unit commute home – not when she had to prepare her apartment for Mat – so she ordered a Swyft from the north lot of the Simple Tower.
‘Enough heat?’ the driver said.
‘Yes,’ Ava said. She slipped on her Peaceful Headphones and closed her eyes, envisioning Mat inside her apartment. It was impossible – like imagining Roy Stone from Thirty-Minute Machine showing up. The days had become shorter and more brutal, and by the time she got home, it was dark. She walked Brutus through Fort Greene Park, the wind biting at her, blowing her hood off and chilling her so completely that her ears ached from the inside. Brutus quickly peed on a tree, then whined to turn around, his hind legs quivering in the cold. They headed back to her apartment, the night sh
