The house felt too big when he walked in, the lights came up in a soft path down the hall like always, but tonight it felt like a hotel after checkout. Everything was in place and there was no that mattered to him inside it.
He had noticed her car was still absent from the parking spot and it meant only one thing.
Julian checked his phone before he set down his keys for any new message he might have missed, like checking it a hundred times would change the fact that she hadn't even bothered to respond to his message all day.
The last thing on their text thread was the last message he had sent to her in the morning.
He stood there a second longer than made sense, before he headed upstairs. The bedroom held the shape and promises of the day they were supposed to have.
Her sweater draped over a chair, a tube of lipstick on the dresser, the book she'd left facedown on the nightstand. He undressed and took a shower that ran too hot, like the heat could turn his worry into steam.
