Vivienne's POV
He left at ten.
Not because I asked him to. Because he understood without being told that I needed the rest of the night alone and he was the kind of man who gave people what they actually needed rather than what was easier for him to give.
He stood at the door and looked at me.
He didn't ask if I was alright. He didn't try to say anything that would make the next few hours easier because he understood that easier was not the point right now.
He just looked at me with that open undefended face.
Then he left.
I locked the door.
And stood in the hallway of my apartment for a moment in the specific quiet that followed someone leaving, the quality of a space that had recently held two people and was now holding one.
....
I didn't go to bed.
I sat in the chair by the w
