Chapter 52 The First Step

• Jules POV
• The diner is busy for a Tuesday, which is good because busy means moving and moving means I don't have to think.
• I take the section by the window because Mel lets me choose when I'm early, and I'm early today, uniform straight, hair up, and I move through the first two hours with something that feels almost like steadiness. Not happiness, not fine, just steady — one table to the next, one order at a time, the particular rhythm of work that has kept me upright when nothing else did.