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Trusted.

The ballroom changed without moving. For one second, the blue light overhead became too bright. Silverware sounded sharp against plates. The radio pressed heavily against my hip.

Ansel knew what had happened two years ago. All of it, including the parts the review had been polite about.

He had given the museum my name anyway, over four firms that had never had a bad night in their lives.

That was the part I could not hold. If his trust had been built on missing information, I could have corrected him. There was no correcting a man who already knew and had decided anyway.

“Priya?” he said.

“Thank you.”

The words sounded correct.

“You’re welcome.”

“The program begins now.”

I raised the radio.

“House to half. Go.”

The room dimmed by degrees.

“Video one. Go.”

The museum logo dissolved into stars.

Conversations tapered. Heads turned toward the stage.

I went out through the service door while the applause was still building.

Behind the drape the room lost its polish immediately. Work lights. Gray walls. Stacked racks and empty glass crates waiting for strike. Two servers eating standing up with plates balanced on a road case.

Nobody looked at me. There was no reason to. The floor was running and I was the person with nothing left to do on it.

The service elevator arrived empty. I stepped in and pressed the loading-dock level, and as the doors came together I heard Ansel’s voice take over at the lectern, warm and unhurried, thanking people by name.

Then metal met metal.

The elevator descended.

Fourteen hours. Somebody had been talking to me for all of them. Asking whether the case went left or right. Telling me I looked terrible. Handing me coffee I hadn’t asked for. Arguing about a label. My mother, wanting a phone number for a brother I couldn’t identify.

It stopped all at once, the way a fan stops.

The doors opened onto the loading dock. Warm June air came through the raised bay, and the city stood out there catching the last of the gold along its edges, entirely uninterested.

I checked my phone.

No missed calls.

Nothing required me.

I checked again anyway.

***