Elena's POV
"I'm not going to follow him."
I said it out loud to no one, standing alone in the printer alcove with Ruth's message still glowing on my screen, like saying it might make it more true. By the time I made it back to my desk, the elevator at the far end of the floor had already swallowed him whole, and whatever chance I'd had to trail him out of the building had gone with it.
I told myself that was for the best. I told myself a lot of things that evening that weren't quite convincing, and none of them stopped the hollow, unsettled feeling that sat in my chest for the rest of the afternoon.
I stayed late anyway, long after Ruth had gone home, long after the floor had emptied into that particular hush that settled over the office once the sun dropped behind the skyline. I told
