She went back toward the front, and her shoes made a small, clean sound on the tile that I envied.

I put the box on the chair and started with the top drawer, because the top drawer was the safest.

A stapler.

A roll of tape.

A stack of index cards with numbers I no longer needed.

On the corner of the desk stood the mug Sophie had painted at a birthday party in February.

The green shape on the side was a horse.

The blue shape, she had informed me, was also a horse.