Chapter one-The man who smelled like the Rain (Alex)

Evelyn first met him on a day that smelled like rain.

The sky above the university campus was dark and restless, heavy clouds gathering like they were preparing for a storm. Students hurried across the courtyard, clutching their bags and notebooks, trying to reach shelter before the rain began.

But Evelyn wasn’t in a hurry.

She sat alone on a stone bench beneath the old mango tree near the faculty building, a thick economics textbook open on her lap.

She wasn’t really reading it.

She was staring at the sky.

Evelyn loved the moment just before rain fell. The quiet tension in the air. The cool wind brushing against her skin. The smell of wet earth that hadn’t yet touched the ground.

It was peaceful.

Then someone sat beside her.

She noticed the scent first.

Rain.

Soap.

And something warm she couldn’t quite place.

“Are you actually studying,” a voice asked casually, “or just pretending to look smart?”

Evelyn looked up.

That was when she saw him.

Alex.

Alex had a smile that seemed too confident for someone she had just met. His dark hair looked slightly messy, like he had run his hands through it one too many times, and his eyes held a playful curiosity that made her immediately suspicious of him.

She blinked slowly.

“I’m studying,” she replied.

Alex glanced at the open textbook on her lap.

“You’ve been staring at the same page for at least ten minutes.”

Evelyn quickly closed the book.

Alex laughed.

And at that exact moment, the rain started.

Not gentle rain.

Heavy rain.

It fell suddenly, pouring from the sky in thick sheets that drenched the courtyard within seconds. Students screamed and ran for cover as water splashed across the pavement.

But Evelyn and Alex stayed where they were.

Alex leaned back on the bench like the rain didn’t concern him at all.

“Well,” he said with a grin, “looks like we’re trapped.”

Evelyn watched the rain fall.

She could have run.

She should have run.

Instead, she stayed.

And that was how everything started.

After that day, Alex started appearing beside her almost every afternoon.

At first it felt like coincidence.

Then it became obvious it wasn’t.

Sometimes he arrived carrying two cups of coffee.

Sometimes he arrived with nothing except stories.

Alex was studying literature, two years ahead of Evelyn, and he spoke about books like they were living people.

“You chose the wrong course,” he told her one afternoon.

Evelyn looked up from her notes.

“Why?”

“Because you don’t look like someone who should be studying numbers.”

“What does someone who studies numbers look like?”

Alex shrugged.

“Boring.”

She smacked his arm with her notebook.

He laughed again.

Alex had an effortless way of making ordinary days feel exciting. He dragged Evelyn to poetry readings she barely understood and spent hours arguing passionately about novels she had never heard of.

Sometimes he would steal her notebook and scribble something on the edges of the page.

One afternoon Evelyn opened her book during class and found a line written in neat handwriting.

Your eyes look like the sky before rain.

She stared at the sentence for a long time.

After class she found Alex waiting outside.

“Did you write this?” she asked.

Alex pretended to think.

“Maybe.”

“Alex.”

“Okay yes,” he admitted.

Evelyn tried not to smile.

But she failed.

The first time Alex held her hand happened unexpectedly.

They were crossing the busy road outside the university gate when a motorcycle sped past too quickly.

Alex grabbed her hand instantly.

“Careful,” he said.

But even after they reached the other side of the road.

He didn’t let go.

Evelyn looked down at their hands.

Her heart was beating faster than it should.

Alex noticed.

“Should I let go?” he asked softly.

She shook her head before she could think about it.

And that was the moment everything changed.

For six months, Alex became the center of Evelyn’s life.

They studied together.

They ate lunch together.

They walked slowly through campus at night while the streetlights flickered above them.

Alex talked endlessly about becoming a famous writer someday.

Evelyn told him she just wanted a peaceful life.

“You deserve more than peaceful,” he told her once.

Sometimes he rested his head on her lap while she read out loud from his favorite novels.

Sometimes he looked at her so intensely that it made her nervous.

“You know your problem?” Alex said one evening.

Evelyn raised an eyebrow.

“What?”

“You fall in love too easily.”

She laughed.

“That’s not a problem.”

Alex didn’t laugh back.

“It can be.”

But Evelyn didn’t understand what he meant.

Not then.

The first sign something was wrong came on a Tuesday afternoon.

Evelyn walked into the campus library looking for Alex.

She had exciting news.

She had just passed the hardest exam of her semester, the one she had cried about for weeks.

She searched the quiet library until she saw him sitting at a table near the back.

But he wasn’t alone.

A girl sat across from him.

She was beautiful.

Tall. Elegant. Confident.

The kind of woman who walked into a room like she already owned it.

Alex was smiling at her.

The same smile he always gave Evelyn.

Evelyn stopped walking.

Alex noticed her almost immediately.

His expression changed quickly.

“Evelyn,” he said. “This is Lara.”

The girl smiled politely.

“Hi.”

Evelyn forced a smile.

“Hi.”

Something felt wrong.

Like walking into your own house and realizing someone had moved the furniture.

Alex stood up quickly.

“We’re working on a writing project,” he explained.

Evelyn nodded.

But the tight feeling in her chest didn’t disappear.

That night Alex didn’t sit with her under the mango tree.

He said he had work to do.

The next day he was busy again.

And the day after that.

Finally, Evelyn asked the question she had been avoiding.

“Are you avoiding me?”

They were sitting on the same bench where they had first met.

The air became tight.

Alex sighed heavily.

“It’s complicated.”

“I hate that sentence.”

He rubbed his forehead.

“Lara and I used to date.”

Evelyn felt her stomach drop.

“Used to?”

“She came back this semester.”

Silence stretched between them.

“What does that mean for us?” Evelyn asked quietly.

Alex looked away.

“I don’t know.”

And somehow those three words hurt more than anything else.

One week later, Alex ended it.

They stood beneath the mango tree as rain poured down around them.

“I’m sorry,” Alex said.

“I think I still love her.”

Evelyn felt something inside her crack.

But she forced herself to stay calm.

“That’s okay,” she whispered.

Alex looked relieved.

“I never meant to hurt you.”

“I know.”

But as Alex walked away, disappearing into the curtain of rain, Evelyn realized something painful.

Her head down as she walked under the rain

She acted so calm but it did hurt so much deep inside as she walked in the rain she felt so heartbroken she didn’t realize she was crying as she rain washed her not being able to breath,

She caught a cold and a high fever her roommates were all shocked they have never seen Evelyn this sad

Her first love was gone in a blink of an eye and it wasn’t even up to a year but she’s didn’t get to see him again not even crossing paths

So she got over him pretty well