Ava pulled it out gingerly past the granola bars and molding Tupperware, as if it were liable to explode. She looked at it, rubbing her thumbs against the tightly knit wool. The hope she’d poured into it hadn’t worked the way she’d imagined. She and Jules were never going to be a couple again, but—what was it Nouresh had called it? They could have found their footing with one another. Knit themselves back together in a different shape.

She briefly felt the urge to make a big exit. Destroy the break room, flip a table, light Tricia’s desk on fire, pull the alarm. The urge passed; she was too damn tired for the melodrama. She settled for writing “I QUIT” on her ID card in permanent marker and leaving it artfully draped across the hot chocolate she hadn’t drunk. Then she took the back stairs out to the loading dock, where the half-dozen dudes paid her no more mind than they ever had, and walked the three-quarters of a mile to the bus stop.

She dozed off on the bus, missed her stop, but recognized where she was and pulled the cord. The bus let her off about a mile from Jules’s studio apartment, which had, for a brief couple of months, been nearly as familiar as her own home. Ava trundled slowly through the snow, which had continued to spit down through the day, spiteful and cold, turning the sidewalk treacherous. The mile-long walk took nearly twice as long as normal, with the road slippery and arduous. Ava pulled the scarf tighter across her face as the wind slapped bits of ice into her eyes and cheeks.

The spare key, thankfully, was exactly where she remembered it, under the novelty welcome mat that said Hello … Is it me you’re looking for? If they were here, she would have yelled at Jules for not moving the key, hiding it better. Who’s going to break into a shitty third-floor attic apartment with a Lionel Richie mat? they always said. Besides, I got fuck-all worth stealing. The most expensive shit I’ve got in there is the coffee my parents buy me.

Ava slipped the key into the deadbolt and unlocked the door. Jules’s coffee was really good. Better than the shit she bought.