Empty desks have personalities. Mindy is gone. Frida opens the office, stands in the kitchen with coffee still too hot to drink, looks at the desk. Casandra comes in, clocks it: "Yeah." Chloe takes an earbud out when she passes the desk, puts it back, says nothing. The room runs its normal morning. But underneath - the quality of a room that knows something has been set in motion. Melissa comes in from her own Dallas trip at eleven. Sees Mindy's absence, gets the nod from Jayme: *she'll be back.* Opens her laptop. The pitch document is in the third folder, moved there so it's not the first thing she sees. It's still the first thing she notices. She doesn't open it today. But the room is different without Mindy in it. The temperature changed. There's a particular honesty that arrives when the person who was watching isn't there. Melissa closes the laptop and goes to find Jayme - because there's something she wants to say, and today's room is the right room. Featured: Frida Martinez, division lead. Casandra Cass, production. Chloe Dawn, editorial. Melissa Sanderson, strategist. The Marfa Munchies is a daily fiction podcast about a food, beverage, and lifestyle division of a creative agency between Marfa and Dallas. New episodes every morning. Follow the world at @marfamunchies on Instagram, TikTok, Threads, and Bluesky. . . . | ai-assisted fiction