He slumped over his desk, drained.

Karen approached him and spoke, and he nodded his awareness, but her words didn’t register. She nodded, satisfied somehow, before leaving.

He hated her a little for not sensing his anguish.

His body fought to function normally.

iPod in bag. Papers in folders. Folders in drawer. Coat. Leave.

His brain whimpered a suggestion. Trash the jello now, or it would melt in his drawer overnight.

He pulled it out…and noticed something beneath it.

Dropping the jello haphazardly into the wastebasket, he reached into the drawer and pulled out a sheet of thick parchment paper.