The morning began without urgency. I did not check my phone. I did not reach for my planner or glance at the inbox that waited like a coiled wire. The emails would still be there tomorrow. Today was not for solving anything.

I woke slowly, the kind of waking that happened not because of alarms, but because of sunlight. The window let in a pale gold that stretched across the wooden floor in quiet strips. Outside, the city was moving, but from where I lay, it was only a soft hum, like water ...