The three months in Baltimore were the longest of Marcus's life. The work was good—exceptional, even. He'd settled into a new lab, hired a strong team, and begun implementing the neuroplasticity research at a scale that was opening new doors. The consortium was working, the collaboration with Johns Hopkins was yielding results, and professionally, everything was exceeding expectations. Personally, he was drowning. He and Sienna had tried video calls, but they were torture—watching her on a screen, seeing her body but not being able to touch it, hearing her voice but not being able to kiss her. After two weeks, they stopped doing them. It was worse than not talking at all. They texted sometimes, but the messages were brief and stilted. How was work? Fine. How are you? Fine. Missing you? Always. But fine wasn't good enough, and missing you felt like pouring salt on an open wound. Marcus threw himself into work, using research as a buffer against the pain of separation. He wor
Last Updated : 2026-06-14 Read more