1. The Beginning
Chapter one
The Beginning
Miko never believed ordinary days could change a person’s life.
Not the big kind of change people saw coming from a distance. Not the kind that arrived with warning signs, loud arguments, or doors slamming shut.
Real change was quieter than that.
Sometimes it walked through the same door as everybody else, wearing a work badge, carrying a purse, minding its business, and not saying much at all.
That was how Meca entered Miko’s life.
At work.
On a regular day.
In the middle of regular people doing regular things.
Miko came in that morning like she always did, with her purse on her shoulder, her keys in her hand, and her mind already halfway on the day ahead.
The building was awake before she was. Voices carried down the hallway.
Phones rang. Somebody was laughing too loud near the break area.
Somebody else was complaining before the day even had a chance to start.
That was work.
A place where everybody had a role to play.
Some people came in ready to work.
Some came in ready to gossip.
Some came in just to watch everybody else.
Miko had learned how to move through it without giving too much of herself away.
“Good morning, Miko,” Jemika called out from near the front desk.
Miko glanced over. “Morning.”
Jemika was already posted up like she had been waiting for the building to give her something to talk about. She always knew who was late, who was mad, who was dating, who had stopped dating, and who came in wearing the same outfit twice in one month.
Miko didn’t dislike Jemika.
She just knew Jemika paid attention to too much.
“You look tired,” Jemika said.
“I am tired.”
“Jayson kept you up?”
Miko paused, giving Jemika the look.
Jemika smirked. “I’m just asking.”
“You always just asking.”
“That’s how you find things out.”
Miko shook her head and kept walking. “I don’t have nothing for you today.”
“That’s what they all say.”
Miko ignored her and made her way deeper into the building.
She wasn’t in the mood to talk about Jayson. Not that morning. Not before coffee. Not before she had even sat down.
Jayson was complicated.
Some days he acted like the man she first fell for. Charming. Funny. Smooth with his words. The kind of man who could make a woman forget why she was mad in the first place.
Other days, he acted like love was a game and Miko was supposed to keep guessing the rules.
He was a barber, and everybody knew barbers had rhythm with people. They knew how to talk. How to laugh. How to make somebody feel like they were the only person in the room while three other people waited for the same attention.
Miko loved him.
Or maybe she loved who he was when he was trying.
That was the part she hadn’t figured out yet.
By the time she reached her area, she had pushed Jayson to the back of her mind. Work had a way of doing that. Personal problems had to wait when the day started pulling on you from every direction.
She placed her purse down, adjusted a few things on her desk, and looked up when she noticed someone standing near the doorway.
A woman she hadn’t really seen before.
Not like that.
She was pretty in a quiet way. Not flashy. Not loud. Her hair was neat, her outfit clean, her expression calm. She stood like she knew how to observe a room before giving the room access to her.
Miko looked at her.
The woman looked back.
For a second, neither one of them said anything.
Then the woman gave a small nod.
“Good morning.”
“Good morning,” Miko said.
That was it.
No music.
No spark.
No feeling in Miko’s chest.
No sign from the universe.
Just two women speaking because they worked in the same building and that was what grown people did.
A few minutes later, someone introduced her properly.
“Miko, this is Meca. She’ll be working with us.”
Meca extended her hand.
Miko took it.
Her hand was warm. Firm. Confident.
“Nice to meet you,” Meca said.
“You too.”
Miko didn’t hold on too long.
Meca didn’t either.
The day moved on.
People came and went. Assignments were handed out. Conversations started and stopped. Jemika found something to whisper about before lunch. Miko stayed focused because focus was how she got through the day without letting everybody else’s energy become hers.
Every now and then, she noticed Meca.
Not because she was trying to.
Because Meca had a calmness about her that stood out in a place where everybody seemed to be performing.
Meca didn’t force conversation.
She didn’t laugh at things that weren’t funny.
She didn’t compete to be seen.
If someone asked her something, she answered.
If she didn’t know, she said she didn’t know.
Miko respected that.
By the afternoon, they ended up near the same work area, sorting through a task that had been left half-done by somebody who clearly didn’t care how much confusion they caused.
Miko looked at the mess in front of them and sighed.
“Who did this?”
Meca glanced at it. “Somebody who clocked out emotionally before they clocked out physically.”
Miko turned and looked at her.
Meca’s face stayed serious for two seconds before the corner of her mouth lifted.
Miko laughed before she could stop herself.
“Okay, so you got jokes?”
“Only when the situation calls for it.”
“This situation definitely calls for it.”
They worked side by side for the next twenty minutes, not saying much, but somehow falling into a rhythm. Meca didn’t ask unnecessary questions. Miko didn’t over-explain. They both seemed to understand the assignment without turning it into a production.
When they finished, Miko nodded toward the work.
“See, that wasn’t too bad.”
Meca picked up the last folder and straightened it. “That’s because we fixed somebody else’s foolishness.”
“That’s usually how work goes.”
Meca smiled. “I’m starting to see that.”
Miko looked at her for a moment, then returned the smile.
There was nothing deep about it.
Nothing personal.
Just a small moment between coworkers who had survived a minor inconvenience together.
By the end of the day, Miko had formed one simple opinion about Meca.
She was cool.
That was all.
Cool.
Quiet.
Funny when she wanted to be.
Easy to work with.
When Miko gathered her things and prepared to leave, Jemika appeared again like she had been waiting on a cue.
“So what you think about the new girl?”
Miko slipped her purse over her shoulder. “Who? Meca?”
“Yeah.”
“She cool.”
Jemika narrowed her eyes. “That’s it?”
“What else you want me to say?”
“I’m just asking.”
“And there you go again.”
Jemika laughed. “You act like I’m nosy.”
“You are nosy.”
“I’m observant.”
“You’re nosy with a better vocabulary.”
Jemika laughed harder, but Miko kept walking.
Outside, the evening air hit her face, and for the first time all day, she felt like she could breathe. She unlocked her car, sat behind the wheel, and checked her phone.
No message from Jayson.
She stared at the screen longer than she wanted to admit.
Then she locked it and dropped it into her purse.
By the time she pulled out of the parking lot, she had already forgotten most of the workday.
The phone calls.
The folders.
Jemika’s questions.
Even Meca.
At least, that was what Miko believed.
Because at that point, Meca was just another coworker.
Another woman in the building.
Another name attached to another ordinary day.
Miko had no idea that ordinary was only the beginning.