I think about what he said all night.
Not the investigation. Not the filing or Seraphine or the council hearing that is coming. Just those six words. No one has asked me that in a very long time. Said without performance, without it being a preamble to something else. Just the answer to a question I asked because I wanted to know.
I get up before six. I shower. I get dressed. I stop at the coffee place on the corner, the one I have been going to for two years, and I order two coffees. Black. Both of them.
I carry them to the building.
The project room is empty when I arrive. I put my bag down. I put his coffee on the table where he always puts mine. I look at it for a moment sitting there on his side of the table and then I open my blueprints and I get to work.
He arrives at seven for
