Back at the office, by the time Sylvie realized how long she had been staring at her screen, the office had already begun to feel empty.
A few lights had been switched off and several desks were empty. Chairs were pushed in neatly, abandoned for the night.
She leaned back in her chair and exhaled slowly, rubbing her eyes.
Whatever she had been working on refused to come together the way it usually did. She had rewritten the same section more times than she cared to count. Her focus slipped every few minutes, her thoughts drifting somewhere else, home, the tension that had hovered over the house for days.
She glanced at the time. It was already late.
She shut her laptop with a soft click and began gathering her things. As she stood, her body protested, stiff from sitting too long. She
