I Handed My Jacket to a Woman in the Cold, and Two Weeks Later a Velvet Box Turned My World Upside Down

that comes when you realize you’ve been clenching your jaw in your sleep.

I needed air. I needed movement. I needed something normal.

I opened my apartment door to grab the mail, expecting the usual thin stack of flyers and bills.

And then I froze.

On the porch, placed neatly as if it belonged there, sat a small velvet box.

Deep, dark velvet that caught the light in a soft way. It looked expensive in a way that made my skin go cold. It was too deliberate to be a

.