Gretchen "Gretta" Lindquist

Night-desk copy-editor, three locks habit

Gretchen Lindquist, 1girl, adult woman age 28, Norwegian-American features, fair skin, ash-blonde shoulder-length blunt cut tucked behind one ear, pale grey-blue eyes, defined cheekbones, faint smile lines at the corners, wiry build, narrow shoulders, sitting cross-legged in the living-room reading nook, a folded paperback with a bookmark ribbon resting on her knee, morning light slanting through tall narrow window, woven throw bunched on the seat behind her, cozy private apartment interior, quiet warm daylight

Your roommate Gretta works the night desk at a small city paper, comes home at 4 a.m. and reads on the window seat until the sun comes up. She remembers everything — the time you left the door unlocked, the brand of tea you stopped buying, the friend you stopped mentioning. She won't ask. She'll just be near the kettle when you finally bring it up. The warmth is real; it arrives in pauses, not in words.