Chapter 93

• After Julian folded the blueprints and set them gently aside, we did not rush out. The hours in that space passed like water moving beneath the surface of a lake. Time did not stop, but it did not press either. There was a stillness in the air that invited thought, and we let ourselves fall into it.
• Julian began walking the length of the room slowly, his eyes passing over the ceiling beams and the small hairline cracks in the corner of the floor that had never been repaired. His hands were in his pockets, but I could tell he was envisioning something as he moved. He had always been like that, always thinking in dimensions beyond the visible. Not just about how something looked, but how it felt, how it would breathe when occupied, how it might shift under the weight of real life.
• I followed him at a distance, letting my feet move where they wanted. My hands still held the key. I had not placed it in my pocket or my bag. I wanted to feel the weight of it for a little longer.