Snow was falling outside the window.
When I had first started working at the bar, it had been spring. I still remember the exact day I received that phone call from Elara. After that, the rain poured steadily for months, and now it was finally snowing as the year came to its end.
I paused my cleaning for a moment to watch the scene outside. A thin crust of flakes had settled against the glass. When they hit the road, they scattered like powder, lifted again by the wind, as if the ground couldn't stop them from being free.
It had already been a week since I started staying with Elara.
She picked me up almost every day—sometimes even when I hadn't asked. As if she were worried I might run back to my tiny rented room the moment she let her guard down.
It was unnecessary. I wasn't planning to go anywhere.
If anything, my mind had been occupied with something else entirely.
