She stayed late again,
the office humming its
empty late-afternoon
lull, and found she had
nowhere particular to be.
The light above her desk
was the kind that makes
everyone look tired; it
made her look honest.
For a long while she
just sat there, not
finishing anything, not
starting anything — just
letting the day unspool
behind her without
following it home.
Outside, the city began
its slow blue shift from
work into evening, and
she thought, for the
first time in weeks,
that being alone and
being lonely were not the
same thing at all.