THE FEELING HE COULDN'T EXPLAIN
*This chapter moves between both perspectives — Alex's sections remain in his first-person voice, Glande's sections return to hers.*
A strange feeling had settled over me the moment he asked the question.
*Have we ever met before you joined this company?*
A cold, specific dread that I had been managing for six weeks with careful, deliberate composure and that had, in the space of that single question, threatened to slip its hold entirely.
I answered smoothly.
I had practiced smoothness for six years.
But I could not explain — even to myself, sitting at my desk with my hands flat on the surface and my heart going faster than the moment should have warranted — why his eyes had held mine the way they had. Why did the question not feel random? Why, for t
