Orientation changed how the future appeared.
Not as a horizon to be reached, but as a direction that could be adjusted without panic. Aaliyah felt this most clearly one morning when she realized she was no longer curious about where her life would land.
She was curious about how it would feel along the way.
The apartment was quiet when she woke, Rowan already gone. A note sat on the counter, brief, affectionate, unremarkable.
Back by evening. Don't wait.
Aaliyah smiled at the phrasing.
She didn't.
She spent the morning tending to small things. Washing cups that didn't strictly need washing. Opening windows, then closing them again when the air cooled. Letting the radio play without choosing a station.
None of it felt like distraction.
It felt like inhabiting time rather than filling it.
Midday brought an unexpected invitation.
Not professional.
Not urgent.
A neighbor she barely knew knocked on the door, holding a package delivered to the wrong apartment.
