I nodded. Didn’t mean to. But I did.
When the doors slid open, he didn’t move.
“Hey,” he said softly. “If you ever need someone to listen and not fix—”
He paused, searching for the right words.
“I’m decent at silence. Been practicing it most of my life.”
Something about that lodged in me.
Decent at silence.
God, I was drowning in it.
The next morning, a sticky note was on my keyboard.
“Eat. You forget when you’re sad.”
And for the first time in weeks, I actually smiled.
The next morning, a sticky note was on my keyboard.
“Eat. You forget when you’re sad.”
And for the first time in weeks, I actually smiled.
By the time he showed up at my office door a few days later, I’d started looking forward to that sound the faint hum, the rustle of envelopes, the shadow that paused just long enough to make me feel seen.
I didn’t know his name.
But I knew the way he made the air shift.
Like the world wasn’t all sharp edges and endings.
Hours moved into days and days into weeks. It’s hard to believe how the seconds have bled into minutes, the minutes bleed into days and those days into weeks and yet I still feel the deep ache, the breath-taking pain of losing what I thought was a forever thing.
The stairwell had become my sanctuary.
A concrete cocoon between floors where the office noise couldn’t reach me where I could breathe without someone asking if I was okay.
I sat on the cold step, knees tucked up, phone glowing in my hand.
The dating app was a parade of faces and empty lines. Smirking men holding fish. Bathroom mirror selfies with motivational quotes. Bios that said things like “Just a good guy looking for my forever girl” or “Swipe right if you love adventure.”
I didn’t even know why I was there.
Maybe because I wanted to feel something again.
Maybe because it was easier to scroll through strangers than face the echo of my own loneliness.
A message pinged.
Hey gorgeous, bet you look even better without that frown??
I exhaled through my nose, half a laugh, half disgust. Another followed almost immediately.
You into hiking? Or just emotional damage? Lol.
