Page 157 of The Clinch
I shift my tote higher on my shoulder. We move toward the elevators in a loose knot, the rhythm already easier today than it was yesterday. We know a few things about each other now. Enough that the edges have started to soften.
This is how it starts, I realize. Not in some beautiful, cinematic moment where the world opens and you step into your future. But in repetition. In hallway jokes. In the second time someone remembers your name. In deciding to stay instead of peeling away at the first excuse.
The elevator doors open, and we pile in. On the way down, I almost believe the day is finally mine.
Then my phone buzzes. I glance down automatically, expecting the class chat. Instead, it’s a text. And before I even open it, I know I’m not going to like it.
NATE
Hey, Liam and I just finished a hospital visit at NYU
I’m heading to Brooklyn after this if you want a ride
I stare at the screen.
LIZ
For real?
Another ping comes immediately.
NATE
We do the kids’ wing a few times a year. PR
I’m out front in about ten minutes
Lmk
The elevator humssoftly as it descends. Rebecca is saying something about the library hours. Mateo is pretending not to listen while obviously listening. Nia is already answering two different messages at once with the terrifying efficiency of someone whose brain has accepted med school as a full-contact sport.
And I’m suddenly no longer fully in the elevator with them.
One second ago, I was in the day I had started building for myself. Now the air has shifted, and I’m back inside his.
Not because he asked for me.
Because somehow he never has to.
The Defenders’ captain and starting goalie visiting sick kids at the hospital next door makes perfect sense. So does Nate heading to Brooklyn afterward. So does the offer, warm and casual and impossible to resent.
What doesn’t slide down quite as easily is the part where he knows where I am on a random Wednesday afternoon.
Eden told him,I remind myself.Probably.
By the time I come back to myself, the elevator doors are open.
“Coming?” Nia asks.
“Yeah.” I tuck it away and follow them out.
I keep the screen open as we drift toward the entrance and the glass wall of weather beyond it. The storm has eased, but thesidewalks are still shining, the traffic outside still fighting water and impatience in equal measure.
I could say no. I could stay with my new people. Go to the library. Grab coffee after. Let the day keep unspooling in the direction I was already choosing for myself.
Instead I type back.
LIZ
