I watch you and Caleb reconnect.
I don’t announce myself in those moments. I don’t step closer to see better or farther away to pretend I’m not paying attention. I’m simply there, occupying the same shared spaces, aware without intruding. It’s a skill I’ve had to relearn. Observation without entitlement. Presence without claim.
I say nothing.
I do nothing.
That’s not passivity. It’s choice.
The first time I see him with you again, it’s almost disappointingly ordinary. No dramatic reunion. No charged pause where everyone pretends not to notice the shift in the room. He walks in, exchanges a few words with command, and then he’s beside you like he never left. The ease of it lands harder than anything theatrical would have.
You hand him a mug without asking how he takes it.
He accepts
