Cassidy Holt didn't come back the next day, or the day after.
She took the window seat.
Soren saw her there once, far side, eating fast with her river cat curled small at her feet.
She didn't look over.
Maren noticed too. "She learns."
"Most people do, once."
"I wanted twice."
"You always want twice."
Maren bit her toast and didn't argue it. It was true.
◆◆◆◆
The review still sat on the desk, face-down.
Soren hadn't found the move. The shape Selah handed him in the cafeteria was sitting there, waiting for the rest of itself.
People she didn't have leverage with. That was the frame.
He still didn't have the room to put it in.
"You're chewing on it again," Selah said from her book.
"I'm letting it sit."
"That's a new word for it."
"A problem you can't crack at the desk cracks itself sometimes." He pushed the notice another inch away. "Usually while I'm asleep next to the people it's about."
Selah turned a page. "Convenient theory."
"It's worked twice."
◆◆◆◆
