Jasper.
His name looped in her head like a skipping record. She didn’t know whatshe wanted more in that moment that he’d pulled away… or that he never would have let her go.
It was wrong.
All of it was wrong. The dinner. The conversation. Her laughter. The touches. And the kiss.
She’d been through so much. Spent years fighting to forget. To bury everything connected to those days—to that night. She’d built walls around herself for years. Let no one close. No one.
And now…
The man whose name had once brought her trembling, fear, rage, despair had appeared at the exact moment she needed support the most.
Why him?
Why had it been him who felt so close when she was at her weakest?
The question wouldn’t leave her alone.
And yet she noticed something else.
She didn’t feel panic. No urge to run for pills, to numb herself with sedatives. On the contrary—there was a strange alertness inside her. Almost clarity.
Her phone screen suddenly lit up, tearing her out of her thoughts. The bright light stung her eyes.
A message.
Jasper:Can I come over? Now. I want to talk… about what happened. I really am sorry.
Nina froze. Her heart thudded heavily in her chest. Her fingers trembled—not from fear, but because she didn’t know how she wanted to answer.
Did she want him to come?
Did she want to see him right now?
Before she could decide, another message appeared.
Jasper: Forget it. It’s a terrible idea. The last thing you’d want is me showing up at your place in the middle of the night.
Her finger hovered over the keyboard. Her chest felt tight.
She didn’t think. She just typed:Come over. Before I change my mind. And sent it.
Nina jumped out of bed. Her hair was messy, and she was wearing a cotton nightgown: comfortable, but entirely unsuitable for a late-night conversation in the yard with a man she didn’t know how she felt about. The same man who had kissed her just a few hours ago, then fled as if afraid of his own actions.
What was she doing? She had decided not to invite him inside. That the conversation would be short, restrained, without excessive emotion. In front of the security team—safer. More rational. More correct. But her hands were already grabbing the first things they found: dark jeans, a long-sleeved black turtleneck. In the bathroom, she quickly washed the sleep from her face, brushed her hair, spritzed perfume on her neck. Damn. She wasn't planning to seduce him. But she did it anyway—as if there were a chance he would touch her again. She didn't know why she wanted to look attractive in his eyes. Everyone knew how it ended the last time she wore a beautiful short dress and felt as excited as she did now.
Nina walked to the window and saw headlights. He had arrived. Excitement and anxiety surged inside her. What to do? How to act? Pretend nothing had happened?
She walked toward the door and saw on the panel screen that Jasper was walking toward the entrance. Was security too careless, letting him through like this?
Nina nervously adjusted her turtleneck, took a deep breath, and tried to adopt a neutral expression. She opened the door and he immediately froze on the steps, meeting her gaze.
They stared at each other, unable to utter a single word. She kept her hand on the doorknob, blinking several times. He opened his mouth, then closed it immediately as if he himself didn’t understand why he had come.
“Sorry,” he finally breathed out, running a hand over the back of his neck.“I… all the words I prepared vanished the moment I saw you.”
He frowned, looked away, then looked back at her. He was tense and seemed on edge. It was difficult for Nina to read his emotions. Difficult to understand what he was thinking. She didn’t understand men well at all. She needed to understand herself first.
