đž Chapter 1: The Day I Didn't Expect You
I wasn't supposed to see him again.
The cafĂ© was almost empty, the kind of quiet that makes you hear your own thoughts louder than the world outside. Rain tapped softly against the glass window as I stirred my coffee, already coldâjust like my mood.
Then the bell above the door rang.
I looked up without thinking.
And there he was.
Ethan.
The same messy hair. The same calmeyes. The same face I had trained my heart to forget for three years.
For a moment, time stopped.
He froze too, his hand still on the door, eyes locked on mine as if the universe had played a cruel joke on both of us.
"You," he said quietly, like my name still belonged to him.
I stood up too fast, my chair scraping the floor.
"I didn't know you were back," I replied, pretending my voice wasn't shaking.
"I wasn't planning to be," he said, walking closer. "But life doesn't always ask, does it?"No, it doesn't.
Especially not when it brings back the person who once broke you⊠and somehow still owns a piece of your heart.
We stood there, surrounded by unspoken words, regrets, and memories neither of us was ready to face.
And I realized something terrifying.
Seeing him again hurt.
But not seeing him ever again⊠would have hurt more.