Ethan takes her for coffee.Neutral ground, his idea, texted the following morning with no room for debate. Not a question. Zara gets there first and finds a table at the back, away from the window, orders a flat white and waits with her hands around the cup.Ethan arrives at eleven exactly.He sees her across the room and his expression does its sequence, the real one arriving first, something unguarded moving through his eyes before the managed version settles over it like a shutter closing. He crosses to her table, pulls the chair out, sits. The coffee shop is warm and full of Tuesday morning noise and none of it touches what is sitting between them on this small table.He has prepared. Zara can see it in the set of his shoulders, the way his hands rest deliberately on the surface, a man who has rehearsed this conversation and arranged himself to deliver it cleanly."I need to say some things," Ethan says."Say them."He looks at her. His eyes are steady and carrying something she
Last Updated : 2026-05-01 Read more