“Who are you?” I laughed, shaking my head.

“Yeah, I can’t really do fiction… ‘Stories… some assembly required.’ ‘It’s like a movie with fill in the blanks.’ Can’t do it.”

“No no no no no!” I protested through laughter.

“Yeah… do you have plans for the next few days?”

“Yes, I’m headed north to see my family. I noticed I do that when I’m a hot mess so… we’ll see how that goes, you know?”

“Good. I’m headed up past there as well - taking the bullet to go see my brother.”

Could I really leave this all behind, even for a little while? The thought of escaping, of putting distance between myself and this city, this ache in my chest, was both terrifying and tempting.

But what would it solve? Running away never fixed anything. Then again, maybe some perspective was exactly what I needed right now.

“I’ll drive you halfway if you want to meet my family. Then you can catch the bullet from there,” I said, the words tumbling out, shaky but determined, a lifeline thrown into the space between us.

The morning light caught in the mirrors around us, reflecting and refracting like the layers of truth we’d just shared. Maybe some stabilizing muscles weren’t physical at all.

Well that just happened

At least the workout clothes hide stress sweat