Nora's eyes went to Eli's door again. Every morning it was the same thing. She would walk past his empty room on her way to breakfast, slow down without meaning to, and stand there for a second too long before making herself keep walking.
She never said anything about it.
But Raphael noticed. He noticed the way her shoulders dropped a little every time she passed that door. He noticed how she stopped talking about Eli's laugh, his tiny hands, the way he used to grab her hair, like saying his name out loud had gotten too heavy to carry.
--
Nora was going through files when he walked into her office that morning, a folder in his hand. He set it down on the desk in front of her without a word, and she looked up at him, then down at the folder.
"What's this?"
"Open it."
She did. Formal
