Six (Bri

skyline pour in like a taunt. The glass towers gleamed in the afterno

from the board. Meetings stacked one after another until the day blurred into an endless cycle of numbers, contracts, and

ly, its hands reminding me of some

ous tradition, really, she had her own car, her own driver. But she liked the attention, the stares w

myself to move, but a though

h in her face even as exhaustion weighed her down. And then, at the gala, the way she l

had shifted. Against reason, against every careful boun

, laughing, hauling books, living lives unburdened by board meetings

, there

ic

pped from her ponytail, brushing her cheek as she moved. There was something about the way she carr

ng out of the car. Closing the di

moment

owd, flawless as ever, her hand already reaching for me. Students turned to stare

a moment, her gaze colliding with mine. The world seemed to still, the no

n us. A question. A pull. A reco

a's fingers curl

ent sha

e role I was born to play. Alice turned away first, her shoulders stiff, h

me, satisfied, obliv

nly, though my thoughts

looked back once more, b

ered in my mind, hau