The doorhandle was still cold from Selah's ice when morning came. Nobody had answered the question yet.
Soren had not decided. The review notice had moved from the desk to the inside of his jacket. He could feel the fold of it against his chest when he sat.
This was its own kind of answer. He was not ready to read it yet.
◆◆◆◆
Mona would not leave his side at breakfast.
She homed on him the way she always did. The fork was held better now.
There was a small noise when he set the tray down in front of her. What was new was that she did not eat.
She sat with her humanoid hand flat on the bench between them. She looked at his hand and then at her hand. She did the math of the distance. She did not close it yet.
"Eat," Soren said.
She didn't eat.
She kept her palm flat on the bench, an inch of cafeteria wood between her smallest finger and his, and held it there with the focus of a person doing something very hard for the first time.
