The answer felt simple.
“You.”
There it was.
No take-back. No polite deflection.
Just truth.
His expression didn’t change, but something shifted behind his eyes. Something darker. Hungrier.
He leaned forward slightly, voice low enough that only I could hear.
“You don’t say things like that unless you mean them.”
“I do.”
A long beat passed.
The café noise faded into background static—the clink of cups, the murmur of conversation, the hiss of the espresso machine—until all I could hear was my own pulse roaring in my ears.
What did I just do?
The question screamed through my head, loud and panicked. I’d said it out loud. I’d admitted it without qualifiers or humor or the protective layer of sarcasm I usually relied on. No softening. No retreat. Just yes.
Too much. Too fast.
I replayed the moment instantly, dissecting it the way I always did when vulnerability slipped past my guard. I should have laughed it off. I should have shrugged, made it sound casual, left myself an exit. I should have protected myself.
What if I’d misread him completely?
What if that intensity I’d felt was one-sided—my grief, my exhaustion, my body latching onto the first man who made me feel something sharp and alive? What if he’d only been polite, only returning curiosity instead of desire?
God. What if he thought I was unhinged?
My chest tightened as a dozen humiliating possibilities crashed in at once. He could pull back. He could smooth it over, make a joke, turn distant. He could remind me—gently or not—that we’d just met, that this was inappropriate, that I was projecting something onto him that wasn’t there.
I braced for it. For the polite rejection. The subtle retreat.
Finally, he leaned back again, breaking the moment.
And my stomach dropped.
“Good to know.”
Not rejection.
Not acceptance.
A promise deferred.
And somehow that was even better.
We finished eating slowly, conversation drifting into lighter territory—New York winters, Paris traffic, terrible airline food.
But under it all, tension coiled.
When we finally stood to leave, stepping back into cool morning air, the city felt brighter.
