She didn’t go straight to the bedroom when she got home.
The bag from the pet store remained untouched on the kitchen counter for now. Alessia shrugged off her jacket, placed her keys down in the same spot she always did, then stood quietly in the middle of the kitchen. It wasn’t exactly indecision. She was simply deciding which part of her evening she wanted to deal with first.
Work?
The logs?
The unanswered questions that had followed her all the way home?
Or something simpler.
Food won.
The kitchen lights clicked on, warm and soft, filling the space without making the room feel too bright. Alessia moved through it with the kind of familiarity that came from having done the same things countless times before. She tied her hair back without thinking about it, rolled up her sleeves,
