Liam got to the office the next morning with a clearer idea of what he needed to finish. He had the outline for Miranda due, and he wanted it to be solid enough that she wouldn’t question whether he understood the project. He sat down, opened his notebook, and read through the lines he wrote the night before. Some of it felt tight, some felt like filler, but he had a base to work from.

Caleb showed up a few minutes later, carrying a plastic container of cut fruit and a fork that didn’t look like it belonged to any set. “Morning,” he said as he set his things down. “Ready for round two?”

“As ready as I’ll get,” Liam replied.

“Good. Miranda’s in early too. She has a call at nine, so if you want to show her something before then, keep that in mind.”

Liam nodded. “I’ll get it done.”

He typed quietly for the next half hour, adjusting sections, deleting lines that didn’t sound like anything, and adding short notes where he wanted to expand later. He kept his sentences straight and simple. No big terms. No long explanations. Just the points a client could understand without a guide.

By eight thirty, he had something he could show. Not perfect, but it worked.

He saved the file and walked toward Miranda’s office. Her door was open, and she was standing at her desk looking through a folder.

“Got a minute?” Liam asked.

“Quick one,” she said without looking up. “Call in ten.”

He stepped inside and handed her his laptop. She scrolled through the outline slowly but didn’t say anything at first. When she reached the end, she nodded once.

“This is fine,” she said. “Clean. Not overdone. You’ll build on it later anyway.”

“Anything I should fix now?”

“No. It covers what it needs to cover.” She closed the laptop and handed it back. “Tomorrow, start drafting the first round of ideas with Caleb.”

“All right.”

“And Liam,” she said as he turned to go, “don’t aim for big moves on day two. Just stay steady.”

“I can do that.”

He left her office with a small exhale he didn’t realize he had been holding. For now, he was on the right track.

Back at his desk, Caleb pointed at him with his fork. “She didn’t fire you. Congrats.”

“Very funny,” Liam said.

“Hey, I’m supporting morale.”

Liam sat down and opened his email. A new message had arrived from the client contact: **External design partner confirmed. Kickoff next week. Ridgeway Design Studio.**

He read it twice. He had never heard of Ridgeway. He clicked the link in the email, which led to a page with a short description—small team, local, focused on brand visuals and web layout. Nothing unusual. But the timing tugged at him again.

Design. Local. Next week.

He closed the tab, reminding himself that the city was big enough. Coincidences happened all the time. There was no reason to jump to conclusions.

Caleb leaned over. “Good news?”

“Just confirming the outside partner.”

“Finally,” Caleb said. “That meeting’s been floating on the schedule for a month.”

“Ridgeway Design Studio,” Liam said.

“Oh yeah,” Caleb said. “I think they’re somewhere near Harbor Avenue. Small place. Two or three designers, last I heard.”

“Seems straightforward.”

“Should be. They do clean work.”

Liam nodded, even though he didn’t know enough to have an opinion. He wrote the meeting date in his notebook and tried to move on.

The morning passed with routine tasks. He skimmed through more research files, joined Caleb for a quick check-in about upcoming deadlines, and spent time sorting the notes he had made so he could find everything later. Nothing special happened, but the steady pace helped him settle in.

Around lunch, the office emptied out as people went in groups. Liam stayed behind and reheated leftovers he had brought from the night before. He ate at his desk while scrolling through reference images the client had attached. Most were simple. A few looked familiar, as if he had seen the style before, but he couldn’t place why.

He tried not to think about yesterday’s bus stop conversation. It wasn’t helpful.

In the afternoon, Caleb stopped by his desk with two cans of sparkling water. He set one down. “Hydrate. We have a review meeting in an hour. Nothing major. Just early thoughts.”

“Got it,” Liam said.

The meeting went smoothly. People threw out ideas, some bad, some workable. Liam added a few comments, and no one reacted strangely, so he assumed he sounded competent enough. When they finished, the team agreed to gather again in two days.

Near the end of the workday, Liam drafted a loose plan for tomorrow’s tasks. He packed up when he saw Caleb shutting down his computer.

“You heading out?” Caleb asked.

“Yeah. Gonna clean the apartment a bit.”

“You’ll say that for a week,” Caleb said. “Then you’ll accept the boxes as part of the decor.”

“I’ll try to not get there.”

“Good luck.”

Liam left the office and walked to the bus stop. The ride home was slow but quiet. When he got off and headed toward his building, the light outside had shifted again, leaning toward early evening.

He entered the stairwell and started up. On the second-floor landing, Zoey pushed open the building door with her shoulder, carrying a paper bag from the corner grocery store. When she looked up and saw him, she stopped.

“Hey,” she said. “Back from work?”

“Just got here.”

She adjusted her grip on the bag. “Long day?”

“Steady,” he said. “A lot of reading.”

“That sounds like my Tuesday.”

He smiled lightly. “Yours go okay?”

“Pretty normal,” she said. “I have a planning meeting tomorrow for a new project. Early-stage stuff.”

“Oh yeah?” he asked. “For a client or internal?”

“Client,” she said. “We’re teaming with another group, so tomorrow’s just to get on the same page.”

He nodded, though a small part of him wondered what “another group” meant. He didn’t ask. It wasn’t his business.

She shifted the paper bag to one hand. “Did you ever fix your kitchen problem?”

“I found more plates. Still missing half my stuff.”

“That’s progress.”

“Kind of.”

They stood there for a moment, the conversation easy but short.

“Well,” she finally said, “if you need any basics in the meantime, let me know. I probably have duplicates.”

“Thanks,” Liam said. “Might take you up on that.”

She started toward the stairs. Before turning, she looked back briefly. “See you around.”

“Yeah.”

He continued to his floor, unlocked his door, and stepped inside. The apartment was still cluttered, but he didn’t feel the same pressure to fix it all at once. He changed into a T-shirt and sat at his small table with his notebook open. He wrote a few more notes for tomorrow’s tasks, then closed the book.

He moved a couple of boxes to the side of the room, clearing a small path from the door to the kitchen. He pulled out a single pan, washed it, and set it to dry. Basic order, nothing more.

As he finished, he thought again about the email. Next week. Ridgeway Design Studio.

He shut off the light in the kitchen and walked back to the table. Whatever happened next week would happen then. For now, all he could do was keep the pace steady.

He sat down, took a breath, and let the quiet of the apartment settle in around him.