NOAH
The concrete pavement outside the development site carried a completely different kind of noise than the carpeted floors of the main office.
Here, the city did not pause or adjust for anyone.
Delivery trucks rumbled past, throwing up clouds of grey exhaust, and people in dark coats brushed past my shoulders without looking up from their phones.
Everyone had somewhere to be, a purpose that had absolutely nothing to do with me.
I stood near the temporary chain-link fence, my tablet balanced precariously in one hand and my heavy leather bag digging a familiar ache into my shoulder.
On paper, I was working. Cassian had sent me out here as a site liaison to handle a routine physical check, something about confirming the structural updates and securing a few final signatures from the lead contractor.
It was an errand I had done a dozen times before, the kind of boring, predictable task that usually took forty minutes and required zero deep thought.
