Alison glanced at the clock on the wall—it was already 3 PM. Where had the time gone? She hadn’t felt this out of it since she saw the news. Every hour felt like it had blurred into the next, and yet she was still emotionally raw from everything that had happened. The world outside kept turning, but for her, time had folded into this bubble of numbness. And yet, today wasn’t as bad as she feared it would be. She felt... lighter, strangely enough, as if some of the weight she had been carrying had finally started to lift.
It was because of Noah. There was no denying it now. His silly antics, the lame dad jokes he cracked with too much enthusiasm, and his awkward but genuine efforts to make her smile—it had all worked in his own quirky way. Sure, his jokes were absolutely terrible, but some
