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Downfall
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2024-06-23 21:00:41It felt just so awful, the way the clock jumped back instead of moving forward as they crossed time zones to the west. And with every repeated hour of that endless night, Silvia felt she was losing all she knew and loved, to walk utterly alone into whatever the next days might have in store for her. She expected to feel that way, just like the irrational fear clutching and twisting her guts. She would’ve liked to be able to do something about her instinctive withdrawing into herself to muster her courage and breathe deep before such a leap.
To make it worse, she felt oddly confined in that luxury seat that had her walled up like a baby pen. She could connect with the whole damned world, yet she couldn’t look straight at Jim on the next seat without bringing her feet down from the box under the TV shelf, sitting up and leaning in, past the ugly thing all around her head with more plugs and stuff, and the little counter between the seats.
The moment she moved
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Jim’s phone rang at nine, thirty minutes before the alarm he’d set. Silvia slept against his back, and he was trying to turn around without waking her up when her hand showed up under his arm with his phone.“Thanks,” he muttered, and picked up already grumbling, “Fuck off, Deb. I know I gotta pick you up at eleven.”“Just checking. Steve’s gonna be ready to take off at noon and—”“Bye.”“Photoshoot today?” mumbled Silvia when he disconnected and threw the phone on the nightstand.Jim pulled from her hand to round his waist again. “Yeah. And it’s gonna take all day, if I know Steve. Wanna come?”“I’d love to.”“I think I might need a little insisting to take you along.” He pushed her hand down, and jerked when it slid around his hips to grab his butt.Silvia giggled against his back. “Sorry.
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