Ingrained

Vince wondered how he’d never noticed it before. The dresser was among the initial batch of grownup purchases he’d made after moving into his first post-undergrad apartment, and it was one of the few things that had survived from that time, though he’d accidentally shattered the mirror a couple years back so that now it was technically just a chest of drawers. Part of what had originally attracted him to the piece was its finish, a dark, luxurious-looking umber color that Vince thought made it appear more valuable than it actually was. He’d always admired it but had never spent much time scrutinizing the thing either in the store or in the years that followed as he moved from one place to the next, holding down an assortment of random jobs while attending graduate classes at night. Still, it seemed impossible that he could’ve somehow missed the eye peering out from the side of it.