“Now I know better. Walls only keep ghosts in.”
I hum, feeling that truth settle into me.
“And here we are,” I say, raising my mug slightly, “living in a third-floor apartment with more windows than structural integrity.”
He smiles.
“Weak walls but a stronger life.”
The cup in my hand feels like a toast. I sip to it. As the hum of the city creeps in, Damian asks, “Do you ever miss it?”
“The danger?” I ask, a corner of my mouth lifting.
He shakes his head.
“The… certainty. The clarity of purpose. Every day was a mission, every hour had an objective.”
My body remembers how I used to be in those days. Younger and more agile, far more temperamental. The angry crashing waves of the ocean in me have now mellowed out into calmer waves washing into a lake.
“I don’t miss the fear,” I say. “Or the exhaustion, or the constant calculations. But… I miss the feeling that I was good at something. That I knew my place.”
“Harper,” he murmurs, leaning forward, elbows on his knees. “You still know your place.”
I lift a brow.
“Do I?”
“With me,” he says softly. “With him and the life we’re building. You’re not drifting. This is just… uncharted territory. It has been for a while.”
I look down at my mug. The tea ripples with the night breeze.
“Funny,” I say. “I used to navigate data streams and dark web back doors with more confidence than I now navigate grocery aisles.”
Damian snorts. “You aren’t the only one thinking that the grocery aisles are a labyrinth. Minotaurs are everywhere.”
“Especially in the baby food section.”
He nods gravely. “Terrifying beasts.”
We both laugh quietly, careful not to wake Alexander through the open balcony door.
My laughter fades into something softer.
“Do you remember,” I say, tracing the rim of my mug, “the night we saw each other after a while?”
“I remember,” Damian says immediately. “You were standing at Sera’s door, wondering what a sexy man like me was doing waiting for you.”
“I wasn’t wondering that.”
“You were.”
“Fine,” I concede, eyes narrowing playfully. “I was curious what you were doing there. You didn’t leave my life on exactly a friendly note.”
“That I did not,” he acquiesces, “but it made you want me more.”
“Like fuck it did.” I gape at him. “I wanted to never see you again.”
“Nah, you wanted answers. You wanted closure, and I knew you’d let me back in because of that.”
