So I closed my eyes and waited for his lips to press into mine.
Instead, I felt his warm breath whisper along my neck and ear.
“I want to see you again.”
My breath caught.My heart was beating so wildly.He was so close, but we weren't touching.
“Okay,” I whispered.
And when I opened my eyes, he was already walking away.
And I was already hooked.
And I still didn't know his name.
Chapter 5
11 Months Ago
He’d been texting me nonstop.
Little check-ins.
Memes that made me laugh.
Occasional voice notes when he was stuck in traffic, talking about podcasts or books he still hadn’t started reading.
He was busy, he said.Work had picked up.
But he wanted me to know he was thinking about me.
That he couldn't get me out of his mind.
That he wasn’t disappearing.
That we were stillsomething.
I wanted to believe it.
And when he did show up, random coffees dropped off at the shop, surprise texts asking if I could sneak out for a walk, it felt like I was beingchosen.Like I mattered.
And when he finally told me his name, I thought it would feel like a piece clicking into place...but it came wrapped in quiet tension.
“Andrew,” he said, almost carefully, like he was handing me something breakable.
I remember the way I blinked.The weight of it.Thepausethat came after.
We’d kissed.We’d touched.We’d flirted and traded pieces of ourselves.
But I hadn’t known his name.
And after a month, he had finally shared it with me, but he shared it with a look on his face I didn't understand, hesitation, or was it calculation...And then he said, "I want to keep us quiet for now."
I must have hesitated.Just a flicker.A twitch of confusion he caught in an instant.
“I know that look,” he said, sighing.“It’s not what you think.”
But that was precisely what it felt like.I thought this past month was building to something, and just like that, the air was taken out from under me, and I couldn't understand why.
