So You’re Good to Go by Alyona Chernysh

The group chat had been quiet for three days when he sent the article.

No context. No message. It was just a link dropped into the thread at 11 a.m. on Wednesday. He did everything this way, as though his intentions explained themselves and the world revolved around them, filling in whatever he left out.

She opened it.

The article was about urban planning. They were architects. Objectively, it was relevant. She read the first paragraph and closed it.

Priya was typing.

"Interesting," Priya said. "Especially the part about density ratios."

"Yeah," he said. I thought it was relevant to the Kellner project."

She put her phone face down. It was her project. Not his. She'd had it for four months, since before he joined the firm and before she had to start explaining her decisions to someone who'd been in the industry for three years and spoke in meetings like they'd been there for thirty. She picked her phone back up.

"I had already read it. I used it in the initial brief.

A pause. Long pause...

"Oh great" he said. "So you're good to go with it."

She stared at this for a long moment. So you're good to go with it..... wth he meant by that? That's the syntax of a man checking the work of someone he'd decided, without evidence, was probably behind. What an idiot. She put the phone in her drawer.

He showed up at her office door at 11:45, which was open, and she was kind of kicking herself for that now. Why... why she didn't close it.

"The Kellner elevations," he said. "I had some thoughts."

"I have a call at twelve."

"This'll be quick."

He came in and put a printout on her desk. It had her drawings and elevations with pencil marks on them, as well as his. She looked at the printout and then at him. He was already talking, his finger moving across the page. She felt her jaw start to go numb.

"The western facade. I think there's an opportunity--"

"It's load-bearing."

"Right, but if you--"

"It's load-bearing. I know because I designed it."

A pause. The recalibration. Then:

"Absolutely. Just thinking out loud."

He left the printout on her desk, her work, her months, wearing his pencil marks like he'd been there from the start. She put it in the recycling bin, doing her best to keep her cool.