After Julian folded the blueprints and set them gently aside, we did not rush out. The hours in that space passed like water moving beneath the surface of a lake. Time did not stop, but it did not press either. There was a stillness in the air that invited thought, and we let ourselves fall into it.

Julian began walking the length of the room slowly, his eyes passing over the ceiling beams and the small hairline cracks in the corner of the floor that had never been repaired. His hands were ...