Elena was standing outside when he pulled up, her arms loosely crossed, her expression carrying the particular patience of someone who had been waiting and had decided to make peace with the waiting before he arrived.
He got out of the car and she looked at him the way she looked at him when she was deciding how much of what she was thinking to say.
"Where did you go," she said.
"To see a friend," he said.
She looked at him for a moment. At the clothes he had left in yesterday. At the specific quality of someone who had not slept in their own bed.
"Okay," she said.
'I tried calling Grace when I left Kelly's building,' he thought, falling into step beside her. 'Three times. Nothing. Not even a voicemail. Just the phone ringing and sitting there and the sitting there was its own kind of answer.'
He filed it.
"Today is your first match day," Elena said.
He looked at her.
"So you should get ready," she said. "We have time but not a lot of it."
"Alright," he said.
