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I slumped down in my seat like I was starring in a bad spy movie, keeping my head below the window line. I could barely see over the dashboard.

This was a new low for me.

He parked three rows over and sat in his truck, not moving.

Peeking above the window, I watched him pick up his phone. Stare at it. Set it down. Look at the facility. Pick up the phone again.

Ten minutes passed.

My sandwich sat forgotten in my lap, getting soggy.

He finally got out and walked inside, his shoulders tight. Favoring his left side, which meant his hip was bothering him. Which meant he wasn’t doing his stretches properly or he’d overdone it in practice or⁠—

I cut off the spiral, but my hands were already reaching for my phone to text him a reminder.

Then I remembered I didn’t do that anymore.

I sat up straight, shoved the rest of my sandwich in my mouth a bite at a time, even though it tasted like cardboard, and went inside through the side entrance like the coward I was becoming.

Haley appeared in my office doorway while I was staring at my computer screen late afternoon, telling myself to work.

She walked in and sat in the chair across from my desk.

“I got a call not long ago,” she said.

“Yeah?” I didn’t look up.

“Denver Sports Medicine Institute.”

My hands stilled on the keyboard.

“I know the CEO,” Haley said. “We went to college together. She sounded me out about you. She kept it casual, but I knew what it meant.”

My belly dropped. “And?”

“I told them you’re amazing. Obviously.” She leaned back in the chair. “They’re lucky if you’re even considering them.” Her smile was gentle. “Are you going to interview with them?”

“I don’t know.”

“You’re thinking about it.”

“Maybe.”

She studied my face.

“You’re okay with me leaving?” I asked.

“I want what’s best for you.” She paused. “But make sure you’re choosing for you. Not running away from something.”

“What’s the difference?”

“One makes you brave. The other makes you small.”

I wanted to dismiss it. To label it as the kind of thing people said when they weren’t the ones bleeding out in hallways. But it stuck anyway, like I’d swallowed it whole and it had lodged somewhere deep inside.

She left, and I sat, staring at nothing.

My phone buzzed with a text from the Denver Sports Medicine Institute.