✤ Adrian ✤
Saturday afternoons usually felt slow, but today the hours moved strangely, too fast, and too heavy at the same time. I kept checking the clock as if that would help, as if time might pause long enough for me to gather myself. It didn’t. It was already past three when I finally forced myself out the door and toward the grocery store. If I was going to have Sera over tonight, I needed to at least pretend I was composed. Cooking helped with that. Usually. It gave me something to do with my hands. Something to focus on that wasn’t her. The Bellmere Market was quiet when I arrived. Most people preferred the larger stores near the Eastwood District, but I liked this one. It was smaller, tucked between the florist and an old tailor’s shop. Familiar. Predictable. Safe. I grabbed a bas
