Too close.
Their knees brush under the table, and I see the exact second he notices because one muscle jumps in his jaw.
Her foot slides out lightly under the table.
I don’t see it touch him, not directly.
I see his whole body react like it did.
Subtle.
Sharp.
Immediate.
My stomach drops.
Stella picks up one of the books on the table and flips it open like she belongs here, like she just decided to write herself into a scene and the universe made room.
“So,” she says, eyes on the page, “what are we working on?”
“History,” I answer before Tristan can.
My voice is smooth.
My smile still perfect.
But my pulse is pounding so hard now I can hear it behind my ears.
Stella nods slowly.
“Yeah,” she says. “Tristan and I have a lot of that.”
There it is.
The first shot.
I feel it land.
On him.
On me.
On the whole table.
She looks at him while she says the next part.
“In fact, maybe it’s time we revisited our history.”
No one at the tables around us notices.
Or maybe they do, but not enough to matter yet.
To me, it feels like the whole library just leaned in.
Tristan’s breath catches.
Small.
