For the first time that day, Alessia pushed herself up from her desk. She wasn’t finished, not even close, but her mind had reached that quiet threshold where continuing to stare at reports and screens would stop being productive and start becoming noise.
The office behind her still carried its usual rhythm: phones ringing in distant cubicles, keyboards clicking in uneven bursts, the soft shuffle of documents being passed from hand to hand. But she barely registered any of it anymore. She needed a reset, even if it was only for a few minutes. She crossed the room toward the floor-to-ceiling window, loosening her shoulders as she walked, as if trying to physically shake off the tension that had built up since morning.
The city outside looked unchanged, indifferent in the way it always was
