Held Light, Held Close
Bringing them back to time, to schedule, to the work that needed doing regardless of Paul’s need to test boundaries.
Paul’s head snapped toward the clock again, neck turning fast, as if time kept sneaking up on him, as if minutes were accumulating behind his back, as if the day was progressing without his permission. “We’re still—” He started to protest, to argue, to claim they had time they didn’t have.
“Yes,” Mark said without looking up from his phone, typing something with his thumbs, multitasking his way through Paul’s crisis. “We are. Again.” The repetition weighted with exhaustion, with the accumulated frustration of managing someone who treated time as optional.
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