A Smile Made of Steel
Morning came, but the heaviness from the night before did not leave with the darkness. It hung in the condo like stale air—unmoving, suffocating. Maya woke slowly, though she had barely slept. Her eyes felt swollen and her chest carried that familiar tightness that had become almost constant. She lay still on the bed, staring at the ceiling, listening to Calvin move around the room in silence. Neither of them spoke. The violation of the night before—the discovery that he had been secretly recording her conversations and sending them to other women—sat between them like a thick wall neither of them acknowledged. Calvin dressed as usual. His movements were quick and efficient, as though the events of the night before had been nothing more than a minor inconvenience. Maya watched him f
- Writer
