“You’re up early,” I said, joining him in the hallway.

“Big presentation today,” he replied, kissing my cheek. “The Henderson account. If we land this, it could change everything for the firm.”

I smoothed an imaginary wrinkle from his jacket. “You’ll be brilliant. You always are.”

He smiled, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Thanks, Nat. I should be home by seven. Maybe we can order Thai food?”

“Sounds perfect.”

After he left, I moved through my morning routine with the comfortable predictability of a life well-established. Coffee, shower, twenty minutes with the morning news, then off to my job at the local library where I’d worked for the past five years. It wasn’t glamorous work, but I loved it—the quiet conversations with patrons, the satisfaction of helping someone find exactly the book they needed, the peaceful rhythm of organizing and cataloging.