I sat on the edge of the bed still wearing my coat

Dear Delyara, I got home and just stopped there. I didn’t even take my shoes off. I sat down with my bag still on my shoulder and my coat still buttoned because I could not make the emotional jump from work-self to home-self fast enough. It felt like the day was still all over me — the people, the noise, the fake smiling, the one rude interaction I kept replaying, the traffic, the messages. I think some evenings I need a decompression chamber and what I actually get is a hallway, a staircase, and more people who love me and still need things. Eventually I stood up and took the coat off. It felt less like getting undressed and more like peeling the day off my body.