LAST NIGHT MISTAKE

After Hours

She almost made it out clean.

It was seven forty on a Tuesday and the floor was empty except for the cleaning crew moving quietly through the open plan area. Sonia had stayed late to finish the Mercer board documents because she wanted them perfect and because staying busy was the only strategy she currently had that was working.

She shut her computer down, pulled on her coat, grabbed her bag and walked toward the elevator.

The doors opened before she pressed the button.

Matthew stepped out and nearly walked straight into her.

They both stopped. A foot of space between them. The cleaning crew was around the corner and the floor felt very quiet and very empty in a way it never did during the day.

He was still in his work clothes but his tie was gone and the top button of his shirt was open and he looked like a man who had come back for something he had forgotten, not expecting to find anyone still there.

"You are here late," he said.

"Mercer documents. I wanted them ready tonight." She shifted her bag on her shoulder. "I was just leaving."

He nodded but did not move out of the elevator doorway immediately. His eyes moved over her face in that way he had, the one he never quite managed to stop in time.

"I will walk you out," he said.

"You just came up."

"I forgot my phone." He stepped back into the elevator and held the door. "I will get it after."

She should have said goodnight and taken the stairs.

She stepped in.

The elevator was small the way elevators always were and she stood on her side and he stood on his and the doors closed and the numbers started counting down and nobody said anything for four floors.

"You did good work today," he said to the doors.

"Thank you."

Three more floors.

"How are you finding it? Honestly."

She glanced at him. He was still looking at the doors but there was something open in the question, something that did not belong to Mr. Caldwell of the thirty-second floor. Something that belonged to Matt from the bar.

"Honestly?" she said.

"Yes."

"It is the hardest I have worked in my life and I have not wanted to quit once." She paused. "That is new for me."

He turned his head and looked at her properly. No timer. No shutter coming down.

"What did you do before this?" he asked. Like he genuinely did not know. Like he had not looked at her file.

"I survived," she said simply.

The lobby doors opened.

They walked out together into the cool night air and the city hit them both at once, noise and light and the smell of October in New York. Sonia stopped at the bottom of the steps and turned to face him.

"Thank you for walking me out," she said. Professional. Neat. Done.

"Sonia."

There it was again. Her name in his mouth doing things it had no business doing.

"You do not have to keep your guard up every second," he said quietly. "Not with me. Not right now."

She looked at him for a long moment. The city moved around them like it always did, indifferent and loud, and he was standing there in the amber light from the building looking at her like she was the only still thing in it.

"That is exactly the problem," she said.

He went quiet. Not confused. He understood. She could see that he understood perfectly and that it was not simple for him either and somehow that made everything harder.

A cab rolled past. She raised her hand and it slowed.

"Goodnight Matthew," she said.

He let her use his name this time. Did not correct her.

"Goodnight," he said.

She got in the cab and did not look back and was proud of herself for exactly eleven seconds before she turned and looked through the rear window.

He was still standing there.

Watching her go with his hands in his pockets and something on his face that she felt all the way down to somewhere she was trying very hard to ignore.

She faced forward.

Told the driver her address.

Stared at the city passing by and wondered how long she could keep doing this before something broke.