The next few days unfolded with a steadiness that would have startled an earlier version of me.
Not because nothing happened—things always happened—but because nothing felt like it was tilting me off balance anymore. I noticed the shift most clearly in the spaces between moments. In the pauses. In the way my body no longer tensed in anticipation of something going wrong the instant things felt good.
Ray noticed too, though he never named it outright.
Instead, he adjusted around it, the way he always did—quietly, without commentary. He didn’t watch me for signs of regression or fragility. He didn’t hover. If anything, he gave me more space, not as distance but as trust. The kind that says: I see you standing on your own feet, and I’m not about to take that from you.
One afternoon, I tol
