26

COLE

The first thing I notice when I wake up is that the light’s different. It’s brighter than usual, filtering in through the cracks in my blinds and bathing the room in a warm glow. I usually wake to pale grey light and the chirp of birds in the early morning, but today’s different because the sun’s already higher in the sky.

I’ve slept in. For the first time in recent memory, I didn’t set my alarm.

Any disruption to my rigid schedule would typically throw off my day, maybe even my entire week- but as my eyes start to adjust to the light, it hits me that I’m not alone. Another first: I’m waking up with someone beside me.

No, not just someone.

Her.

Juliet Anderson, the woman who has infiltrated my every waking thought since the day she arrived here in that pale blue sundress, batting her eyelashes and playing all sweet and innocent.

I was hooked from our first hello.

Now she’s fast asleep in my bed, her hair pooled on the pillow beneath her like spun gold, looking so angelic t