Her calm was a deception

The cockroach doesn’t care that you hate it. While you’re asleep, it strolls across your kitchen counter like it pays rent. It has been doing this, in one form or another, for 320 million years (older than trees, older than flowers, older than dinosaurs). When the asteroid hit and the sky burned, cockroaches shrugged and…

She bites her lip, looks right at you, and for a brief moment the entire room dissolves into quiet. It feels as if the world pauses just long enough for you to notice every detail. The light on her cheek. The slow rise of her breath. The subtle shift of her shoulders as she holds…