Felix left the server room with his hoodie draped over one arm. The elevator ride up three floors felt longer than it should have, his body heavy with the kind of exhaustion that made the walls soft at the edges. But he was smiling. A stupid, tired smile that hurt his jaw because his face had forgotten how to do it. He walked past Max and Bella in the lobby, nodded at them, stepped out into the Austin night.
The air was warm and dry and nothing like the rain he grew up with. That was the point. That had always been the point.
He drove home in the car Dayo had bought him — a black Audi he had mentioned once in passing, just a comment about liking the grille, and it had appeared in the JD Secure parking lot the next week with a bow on the hood and no card. Felix had stood there for five minutes trying to figure out if he was allowed to keep it.
