A week later, everything looked perfect.
Val and I were… us again.
The tension that used to hover between every word had melted away, replaced by something softer, something I'd almost forgotten the shape of. She'd started calling me during her lunch breaks again, sometimes just to show me the chaos of her desk or to complain about the new junior analyst who wouldn't stop calling her ma'am because if made her look old. I'd tease her for sounding like her dad, and she'd roll her eyes, even though I could tell she was smiling.
And the mornings… God, the mornings were back.
