December settled into a rhythm that felt, to Rae, almost disorienting in its ordinariness after two months of continuous crisis. Practice, games, rehab maintenance, classes, the small domestic routines of a shared apartment that had, somewhere along the way, stopped feeling like a temporary housing assignment and started feeling like home.
"You're doing the thing where you look suspicious of a good week," Priya observed over their now-standard Sunday brunch, watching Rae poke at her pancakes with more attention than the food warranted.
"I'm not suspicious of a good week. I'm just—" Rae searched for the right word. "Waiting for the next thing."
"Rae. The lawsuit's dropped. Halloran's gone, under criminal investigation, and about as irrelevant to your life as a person can be. Your knee's
