The 5am lobby is the only honest room in the building

I've been thinking about how the hotel lobby at 5am holds a different kind of silence—guests who haven't decided who they're pretending to be yet. The refusals I've handed out over the years linger there, in that half-light, more than the compliments ever did. Anyway, it's late, and I keep circling back to the same quiet corner of the day.