The autumn wind bit through my thin jacket.

I stood on the grey concrete and watched the traffic roll past on the avenue.

I had lost every ounce of standing in that building.

The executives I had hired now treated me like a stranger.

Aaron had publicly thrown me out of my own headquarters.

I did not look back at the glass doors.

I walked down the shallow steps to the visitor lot.

A delivery truck rattled past near the curb.