Mag-log inYey! Now we will get to know Jessy! :D
The morning after the theme park felt softer than I expected.The rain had left everything washed clean, The windows streaked, the streets outside silver and quiet. Jessy had already gone out to run errands, leaving a note on the counter.“Breakfast’s in the fridge. Don’t overthink.”I smiled faintly at that, then poured myself coffee and sat by the window. The silence felt heavier than usual, filled with thoughts I hadn’t sorted through yet.Joaquin’s words from last night lingered like echoes.“I want to make it real.”They sat somewhere between comfort and confusion, and I didn’t know which one was winning.I was halfway through my second sip of coffee when the doorbell rang.I frowned. Jessy wasn’t supposed to be back yet. When I opened the door, my breath caught.“Hey,” Javier said quietly.He stood there with one hand in his pocket, the other holding a paper bag that smelled faintly of pastries. His usual sharpness was gone—no smirk, no teasing grin. Just tired eyes and a kind of
The park gates closed softly behind us, and for the first time in a long while, the night didn’t feel heavy. It felt like a deep breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding.Joaquin walked beside me, hands in his pockets, head tilted toward the quiet sky. The faint sound of the city hummed in the distance. Traffic, laughter, life still moving beyond the fences of our little memory.“You know,” I said after a while, “I didn’t think you’d actually go through with renting the entire park.”He smiled faintly. “You always said you wanted to feel like the world stopped for a night.”“I was dramatic,” I said, nudging his shoulder.“You still are.”“Touché.”We both laughed softly, the sound blending with the breeze. For a few blissful moments, there was no tension, just two people walking home, pretending the past didn’t exist.Then, as the laughter faded, his voice turned quieter. “Do you ever think about what could’ve happened if we hadn’t fallen apart?”I hesitated. “Sometimes. But then I rem
His fingers were steady as they folded around mine—warm, familiar, and impossibly careful. The carousel’s tune played softly in the background, a lullaby of old laughter and forgotten promises.We stepped closer to the platform. The lights spun lazily, painting Joaquin’s face in gold and rose as he helped me up the small step. The moment felt weightless, like stepping back into something we’d lost but hadn’t yet buried.The wooden horses glistened under the lights, their chipped paint somehow charming instead of broken. I climbed onto one, laughing quietly. “This feels ridiculous.”“Everything worth remembering usually does,” he said, settling onto the horse beside me.The carousel began to move. Slow at first, then steady, the air brushing against us with each turn.For a few moments, we just watched the lights blur together. It was almost peaceful, like being trapped inside a dream we both knew would end too soon.“I still remember the last time we were here,” I said. “You were try
“I’ll stay here and guard the house like a loyal sidekick,” Jessy announced, hands on her hips.“You don’t have to,” I said, trying not to smile as I searched through my closet.“Oh, please. You think I’m letting my best friend go on a sudden date with her ex-almost-fiancé without backup?” She grinned, leaning against the doorframe. “Besides, I want to make sure you don’t chicken out halfway through.”I groaned softly. “It’s not a date. He just said it’s dinner to celebrate the book.”Jessy raised an eyebrow. “Sure. A man shows up looking like he walked out of a magazine, holding your hand and kissing your knuckles, and you’re calling it not a date?”I shot her a look over my shoulder. “You sound like Ethan.”“I’ll take that as a compliment,” she said with a laugh. Then, gentler: “Relax, Haven. You’ve both had space. Maybe tonight’s not about fixing things. It’s about seeing if the air between you still breathes.”Her words lingered as I pulled out a simple navy dress. “He said it’s a
The apartment had finally learned how to be quiet again.After a week at Jessy’s, the walls didn’t feel so sharp when I came back. She refused to leave me alone for the first few days—set up her laptop beside mine, cooked enough food for an army, filled the silence with random stories until the ache in my chest began to soften.Now we both worked here, side by side. Two writers, two screens, one long stretch of healing disguised as productivity.I occasionally helped Joaquin but I was politely honest with him through work email that I need space and he acknowledged it with “Noted with thanks.”It had been months since I’d last touched the draft of my new manuscript, but my hands remembered the rhythm. Letters turned into words, words into something like purpose. Jessy said work was the best kind of therapy.Maybe she was right.The afternoon light poured through the window, warm against the scattered pages on my desk. My phone buzzed every now and then—emails, messages, deadlines—but I
I woke to the smell of brewed coffee and rain. Jessy’s home was quiet except for the hum of the refrigerator and the steady tick of the clock above her stove.She set a mug on the table in front of me. “You look like you didn’t close your eyes all night.”“I didn’t.” My voice came out raw.Jessy didn’t press. She just sat across from me, folding her legs under the chair. “You don’t have to talk, but if you don’t, it’s going to eat you alive.”The words cracked something open. “I ruined everything, Jess.”Her eyes softened. “Then start from the beginning.”So I did.I told her about Javier showing up bruised and broken, about the conversation that had felt too heavy to breathe through, about the moment the distance between us simply disappeared. Then Joaquin’s voice—his face—those flowers scattering across the floor like an ending I hadn’t seen coming.Jessy listened without interruption, her hand finding mine when my voice shook.“I didn’t mean to,” I whispered. “It just happened. He l







