It had been a little over a week since she arrived at Evelyn’s apartment. The small space where bright sunlight filtered through the large window and where the air felt welcoming and calm had quickly become cramped and the air now felt heavy and unbearably thick.
She sat on the bed with her arms around her knees, her fists balled around the soft fleece of the oversized beige sweater she wore and her chin rested on the black fabric of her pants. The book she had been reading lay open at her bare feet, her eyes grazed the text but she couldn’t make them focus on the words. And the small table-top lamp no longer gave her enough light to read by comfortably. A continuous barrage of clicking sounds assaulted her ears from the moment she opened her book early in the afternoon until now, when she could no longer bare to look at the page any longer.
She looked over at the source of the noise, the illumination of three computer screens highlighted a crouched silhouette. She watched as he typed furiously, looking from one screen to the next, and thought about how she had not seen him move from that place all day. She sighed and looked away, her long brown hair falling over her shoulder as she picked up her cell phone.