5
I looked over at her.
She was a mess. Her hair looked like weeds.
She stunk, and her clothes were torn.
I stepped back.
<
12:10
She was staring at my lunch.
I gave it to her, she began to eat it like a wild animal.
I looked at her again, noticing that she didn’t have many clothes.
(54)
She was a homeless woman, kind of like a stray
cat.
I took off my coat and gave it to her. I wanted
to talk to her more, but other than the first few
sentences, she kept laughing.
I was running out of time, my flight was about
to board.
I waited until the cops arrived, gave them my
number, and got into a cab.
I made it to the gate just in time.
Before I turned on airplane mode, I opened the
group text for the holiday party.
Mark was on stage giving a speech. He was
about to announce the Employee of the Year.
My other coworkers were saying how handsome
Mark was.
Only one person was asking about me.
[Where is Sarah?]
[She’s on vacation!]
[Good thing she’s not here, she would have lost
it when she saw that intern fixing Mark’s tie!]
And then they sent a photo. Mark was looking
down as Liz in a red dress was looking up at
him. She looked like she idolized him.
P…
<
12:10
[Wait… who’s the girlfriend here?]
The last two messages were immediately
deleted.
It didn’t matter. I deleted the whole group
chat.
My resignation letter went through a minute
ago.
Chapter 2
My heart, which I thought was numb to pain, still clenched in my chest like a fist. I slammed my phone shut. As the screen went dark, tears streamed down my face, and the clouds drifted
by outside the airplane window.
