It was his idea.

He mentioned it on a Tuesday evening, not in her apartment, just casually, the way you mentioned things you had been thinking about but hadn't fully committed to saying — they were in the elevator at the end of the day and he said the office and nothing else and she looked at him and he looked at the elevator doors and she said Thursday and he said yes and that was the entire conversation.

Thursday she stayed late.

Not unusually late — she always stayed late, it was her cover and her reality simultaneously, the two things existing comfortably together. She finished the work that...