LOGINDANIELLA POVI don’t know how long I sat in that car alone with the howl still ringing somewhere in my chest but at some point headlights swept across the trees and his car door opened and he got in and the silence that came in with him was a different kind than the one he’d left behind.He didn’t say anything for a moment, he just sat there with both hands on the wheel and stared through the windshield and I looked at his profile in the dark and waited and the city below us had no idea, it just kept glittering like everything was fine.“I’m sorry,” he said finally.“Don’t,” I said.He looked at me.“Don’t apologise and then say nothing,” I said. “I’m tired of the apologies that don’t come with anything behind them.”Something moved across his face. He nodded once, slow, like he was accepting something, and then he started the car and drove me home and the whole way back neither of us said a word and I sat with my hands in my lap and watched the streets go by and felt the weight of ev
DANIELLA POVHe had been quiet all evening.Not his usual quiet, not the comfortable kind that I had learned to just exist inside of without needing to fill it. This was different. This was the kind of quiet that had weight to it, that sat between us at dinner and drove home with us afterward and didn’t leave when we pulled off the main road into this spot he knew, overlooking the city, where he’d parked without explaining why and turned the engine off.I had waited. The city glittered below us and the car was warm and I sat with my hands in my lap and waited because I had learned that with Rider you didn’t push. You just made enough space and eventually he came to you.He was staring straight ahead through the windshield.“I need to tell you something,” he said.My heart rate did something immediate.“Okay,” I said. Quietly. Like if I spoke too loudly the moment would startle and run.He turned to look at me and the look on his face was something I hadn’t seen before, not exactly, it
DANIELLA POVI had been asking Rider for three weeks now about me visiting his house. Not in a pushy way, not like I was keeping score, just whenever it came up naturally I would mention it and he would find some smooth way to redirect the conversation and I would let him because I wasn’t going to make it a thing. But I had been asking for three weeks and after everything that had happened, after Thursday and then Saturday and the car and his forehead and the thing I had watched happen that I still hadn’t fully let myself sit with properly, I needed something. I needed to see where he lived. I needed to see one real, concrete, normal thing about him that would give me somewhere solid to stand.So on Sunday morning when he called to ask what I wanted to do that day I said “I want to see your place” and I didn’t soften it or make it a question and there was a pause on the other end of the line, just a breath, and then he said “okay.”Just okay, like he’d been waiting for me to stop le
DANIELLA POVIt was a Thursday evening and we just left work. We were on our way to my house as usual for him to drop me off. While in the car, we were planning a little dinner night later during the week. We argued for some time, before we finally agreed to go to this little Italian place that Lilian had been talking about,and he had also gone there so we settled on that. I was in the passenger seat with my shoes off because my feet weren’t comfortable in the heels I'd chosen. Rider was driving with one hand on the wheel the way he always did and we were talking about something stupid, I don't even remember what, something that had made me laugh, and everything was completely fine, till his phone rang through the car speakers.He glanced at the screen on the dashboard and something shifted in his face immediately, like the good evening just packed itself up and left, and he said "I need to take this" and then he disconnected his phone from the car speaker and answered it.I wasn't
DANIELLA POVIt was a Tuesday and I wasn’t even thinking about anything when it happened.I was just walking down the corridor with a stack of papers pressed against my chest and my mind was somewhere between the Henderson report and what I was going to eat for dinner when I heard this shifting, scraping sound and by the time I turned around, the cart was already moving and it was coming fast and there was a cabinet right behind me and I just froze. I literally just stood there like an idiot because my brain understood what was happening but my legs had completely checked out of the conversation.But then it stopped. Like it literally stopped right before it hit me. The files I was carrying were everywhere on the floor and the metal edge of the cart was right there, like an inch from me, and Rider had his hand on the side of it and he was looking at me with that calm expression he always had and he said “you okay?” like he hadn’t just appeared out of nowhere.“I__” I looked at his
DANIELLA POVThe weekend passed the way good weekends did when you were trying not to think about something. It was full, warm, and carefree. Saturday was for Rider as usual. He showed up at noon with no announcement and no explanation, the way he had started doing, and we spent the afternoon doing nothing in particular. His hand in mine on the couch, while watching a movie neither of us paid real attention to, a late lunch that turned into an early dinner because neither of us moved to end it. He was present in the way he had been before Friday night. Warm and unhurried he was fully there.I looked at him, and the words rearranged themselves into something softer, something easier, and came out as nothing at all. I wanted to talk to him about yesterday, but I just didn’t know how. He was there, like literally right beside me , shoulder against mine, thumb tracing slow absent patterns on the back of my hand, and I didn’t want to put something between us that didn’t have to be there
DANIELLA POVAfter lunch, I went back to my office and reality dawned on me. I had a lot of works to finish up and I had a deadline for Wednesday, that I I had barely started.But my mind was completely gone. I kept on thinking about Rider. The office telecom rang, bringing me out of my dazed stat
DANIELLA POVBy the time we got to the office, my nerves had settled already, It wasn’t gone, just quieter and just enough to overcome what today had in store for me. I turned to him, my fingers gripping my bag slightly before I let go and leaned in.I wrapped my arms around him.“Thank you,” I mur
DANIELLA POVI woke up to my alarm blaring like it had a personal vendetta against me.My eyes snapped open, and the first thing I saw was the time.Crap.“I’m late” I groaned, throwing the covers off myself so fast I nearly tripped over my own legs.Everything after that was chaos.I rushed into t
DANIELLA POVWhen the car stopped, my heart beat had already skyrocketed. I’m not used to surprises, and I was already too anxious. “What did he plan?.” “Was it going to be a terrible night?.” My heart wasn’t even helping matters. Okay calm the fuck down Daniella, it’s Rider , and he doesn’t plan







