Reza
By the time I step outside the building, the late afternoon air feels cooler than it should.
Not colder, just different. As if the world tilted slightly while I wasn’t looking, and now everything is trying to settle back into place without quite managing it.
The doors slide shut behind me with a quiet hiss, sealing away fluorescent lights and too many eyes. The parking lot stretches out ahead, wide and ordinary, bathed in soft gold sunlight that feels undeservedly calm after what just happened inside.
Carl didn’t rush me.
That, more than anything, stays with me as I walk toward my car. He hadn’t barked orders or waved me off like an inconvenience. No sharp questions. No clipped instructions. Instead, he’d studied me for a long moment, really looked, as if measuring something invi
