LOGINSolene:There’s a knock on my door.Sunny reacts before I do—quick feet on tile, a low bark that turns into something louder when I don’t immediately get up.“Okay, I’m coming,” I say, pushing myself off the couch.I already know who it is.Mara doesn’t knock like she’s visiting. She knocks like she’s arriving.I open the door.She walks in without waiting, like the space already belongs to her. Drops her bag on the chair. Looks around once, not really seeing anything.Sunny circles her, then loses interest halfway through and walks off.“Wow,” she mutters. “That was warm.”I close the door behind her.“What’s wrong?” I ask.She doesn’t answer immediately.Just stands there for a second, shifting her weight, like she’s trying to decide how to say something without saying it wrong.“I didn’t tell you something yesterday,” she says finally.Something in me goes still.Not dramatic. Just… attention sharpening.“What?”She exhales.“Ethan was at the café.”The words don’t hit all at once.
Ethan:Miami doesn’t rush you.It just… sits there. Warm. Bright. Like it knows you’ll adjust eventually.I stand by the window a little longer than necessary, looking out at a city that isn’t mine. Not something I built. Not something I understand yet.Temporary.That’s the word that keeps coming up.Behind me, I hear Adriana close her laptop. Soft. Precise.“That’s the last of it,” she says.I turn back, glance at the table. Papers still spread out. Numbers I actually recognize as mine. Clean decisions. No interference.I nod. “Good.”She watches me instead of the documents.“You don’t look like someone who just secured independence,” she says.“I don’t celebrate meetings.”“This wasn’t just a meeting.”“No,” I agree.It wasn’t.She leans back slightly, crossing her legs. Studying me like she’s trying to place something.“You’re doing it,” she says. “Building something without them.”“Yeah.”“And?”I pick up my jacket. Fold it over my arm. Buy myself a second.“And what?”“And you s
Sunny wakes me up before my alarm.Not gently.He nudges my arm once. Then again. Then just commits fully — head pressed into my shoulder like persistence will magically turn into success.“Okay,” I mumble, eyes still closed. “I’m up.”I’m not.He makes this soft, offended sound, low in his throat, the one he reserves for when I’m being particularly disappointing.I crack one eye open.He’s staring at me. Deeply unimpressed. Like I’ve personally failed him by still being in bed at this hour.“Give me a second.”He doesn’t move.Of course he doesn’t.I drag myself upright, pushing my hair back with both hands. The room feels too quiet — early morning quiet. No traffic yet. No voices. Just the low, steady hum of the AC and Sunny’s breathing, impatient and expectant, like he has somewhere important to be and I’m the only thing standing in his way.My hand reaches for my phone automatically, fingers brushing the cool edge of the nightstand.I stop halfway.Let it drop back onto the bed.N
I don’t open his message.Not the first day.Not the second.By the third, it starts to feel… deliberate. Like I’ve chosen this silence and now I have to live inside it. Like if I open it, something will shift and I won’t be able to put it back where it was.My phone lights up sometimes.Orders. Supplier updates. Mara sending voice notes that are mostly her laughing at her own jokes.Not him.He doesn’t send anything else.He said he’d give me space.And he does.Which is somehow worse than if he didn’t.The silence has weight now. It presses against my ribs when I’m trying to focus, lingers in the quiet moments between customers, follows me home like an uninvited shadow.⸻The café is busy in that steady, predictable way that usually settles me.Cups lining up. Names being called. The low murmur of people talking over books and laptops. Someone tapping too loudly on their keyboard in the corner.I move through it like muscle memory.Take order. Pour. Pass. Smile.Repeat.From the out
Solene:I turn my phone face down like it’s done something wrong.It hasn’t.It’s just… there. On the counter. Quiet. Still holding his message like it’s waiting for me to do something with it.Where are you?Simple.Too simple.The café hums around me. Cups knocking softly against saucers. Someone laughing near the window. The machine steaming milk like it always does. Everything moving like nothing shifted.I grab a cloth and start wiping the counter.It’s already clean.I keep going anyway.The repetitive motion helps. It gives my hands something to do while my mind tries to stay still. The faint scent of lemon cleaner rises from the cloth, mixing with the lingering aroma of fresh coffee and warm pastries. Familiar. Safe.Mara walks back in, balancing a tray of pastries on one hand. She takes one look at me and slows down.“You saw something.”I don’t look up. “No.”“Okay,” she says, dragging the word out like she’s tasting it. “That sounded convincing.”I fold the cloth. Unfold it
Miami keeps moving like nothing happened.The heat hits first. Then the noise. Cars, voices, music from somewhere down the street that doesn’t care if you’re ready to hear it or not.I unlock the café door and step inside.It smells the same. Coffee, sugar, something warm baking in the oven. Clean. Finished. The shelves are full now. The library section looks exactly how I imagined it.I stand there for a second longer than necessary.Just looking.I thought this would feel like… something bigger.It doesn’t.It just feels like a place I built.“Don’t even start,” Mara says.I glance over.She’s behind the counter, arms folded, watching me like she’s been waiting.“Start what?”“That face,” she says. “The ‘I’m fine, everything is fine, nothing to see here’ face.”I drop my bag on the chair.“I am fine.”She doesn’t move.Doesn’t blink.Just… stares.Then she takes a slow sip of her iced coffee like she’s bracing herself.“Okay,” she says. “So we’re skipping denial and going straight t
The call comes when I’m alone. Of course it does. Ethan has stepped out to take a meeting, something brief, something “nothing serious.” He said it like a promise. Or maybe like a warning. I don’t know anymore. I watched him grab his jacket, watched the way his eyes lingered on me like he was che
The house feels different again. Not quieter. Just… watchful. Like the walls are listening. Like something has already happened and the space hasn’t caught up yet. Ethan sits across from me on the couch, one ankle resting on his knee, fingers laced together. He’s trying to look calm. He isn’t suc
I don’t sleep. Not really. The guest room bed is too neat, too polite. It smells like detergent and distance. I lie on my back staring at the ceiling fan, counting rotations, pretending my chest isn’t tight. I can hear him moving around in the master bedroom. Drawers. A sigh. The mattress cre
I tell him he can go. The words surprise me as they leave my mouth. I feel them pass my tongue before I’ve fully agreed with them in my head. “You can see her,” I say, quieter than I meant to. “If you want to.” Ethan looks at me like I’ve just handed him something sharp. Something he doesn’t







