Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 1 - Chapitre 5

I shouldn’t have been watching. But the balcony doors were open and so were the curtains. It wasn’t my fault that his apartment faced mine across the courtyard. It wasn’t my fault that warm night air carried sound like a secret begging to be overheard. I just returned home late after closing the bar and wanted to shower and sleep but I just settled in and started hearing sounds from outside my buildingAt first, I thought the laughter was music.Then I saw her.She was sitting on his kitchen counter, legs wrapped loosely around his waist, her fingers tangled in his shirt as he kissed along her neck. Slow and confident, like he knew exactly what he was doing.I froze behind my own curtain. I should have stepped away, Instead, I stayed. Because the man kissing her wasn’t just any man.He was the stranger I’d noticed two weeks ago at the café downstairs. The one with the dark eyes and the lazy smile who held my gaze a second longer than necessary when I ordered my coffee.The one who had

The library was my sanctuary and where I worked with my other colleague who usually sat at the entrance. I stay on the third floor in the corner by the tall windows and occupy my time with philosophy and literature. The smell of paper and dust and old wood grounding me after long days. I liked anonymity and silence there.Until he started sitting across from me. The first day, I assumed it was coincidence. The second day, I suspected curiosity. By the third, I knew it was deliberate. He never interrupted. Never tried to start conversation. But he watched. Not constantly. Not rudely. Just enough.Enough that when I looked up from my book, our eyes met like it had been planned. He held my gaze. And I didn’t look away.Finally, I closed my book.“You know,” I said quietly, mindful of the silence rule, “most people at least attempt subtlety.”A slow smile curved his mouth.“I thought I was being subtle.”“You’re not.”He leaned back slightly in his chair. “Then why haven’t you moved?”Th