ONE LAST TEXT
"For what it's worth, I never thought less of Mia over any of that stuff, if that matters to you. People make mistakes at parties. Doesn't mean anything about who they actually are."
I nodded, not fully able to answer that, my mind already three steps ahead, replaying the image he'd just handed me, a guy moving fast through a door that stuck, banging it open loud enough to carry into the kitchen, disappearing into the dark before anyone got a real look, and for the first time in weeks I walked out of that hardware store with something that actually felt like it might lead somewhere real, instead of one more dead end dressed up as hope.