Jax had done very little since leaving Gretchen in the hospital the week before. She went to work and came home to emptiness. Every night in bed, she analyzed their final conversation, wondering if she had made the right choice. She almost called Meredith one night just to see how she was doing, but Jax knew reaching out wouldn’t be fair, and she would only be doing it to soothe her wound.

Her apartment only felt like her home when Caleb was staying with her. She looked at her couch and television, deciding against watching anything. The bedroom off in the distance was the only room that called to her. She could sleep off her melancholy and tackle tomorrow with new energy. But more than likely she’d wake up in worse shape than before. That seemed to be her every day.

Maybe a trip down to her mailbox would do her good. She grabbed her keys and headed down to the main floor. She decided to take the stairs, figuring there was no real point in rushing. She smiled at an elderly lady next to her. Her mailbox was packed, and she struggled to get all the envelopes and magazines out in one piece. She looked back to the woman, who was now grimacing at her. Jax shrugged and said, “That’ll teach me to skip a few days.”

“What if someone sent you something important?” The old woman’s face was twisted with unabashed confusion and judgment.

Jax gave the question real consideration. “That’s not very likely.” She held up her mail and nodded her good-bye. She fingered through the catalogs, bills, and advertisements as the elevator crawled to the twelfth floor. The elevator doors opened just as she came to the last letter in the pile. The handwriting on the envelope was Gretchen’s. She hadn’t heard from her in a week, since her onslaught of texts abruptly stopped, and now she felt overwhelmingly naive to have believed they’d finally find peace. The doors slid closed.

Jax hit the button to open them again and marched to her apartment, frustration fueling her as she paced. She didn’t want Gretchen to reach out, not like this. A letter between them was never simple. Her hands shook as she held the paper. The rustling sounded loud in her silent apartment.

Jax,