~Elias~

I have been staring at my phone in the last one hour. I’m not even enjoying the quietness that comes with the weekend. I move around the house, gripping onto my phone in my palm. It’s been five days since our lunch at the eatery—five days of a quiet, thrilling shift in the office where every shared glance felt like a match striking in the dark.

But the weekend is here, and the empty space of my house is already starting to feel like it’s closing in on me.

I stop pacing, take ...