They sat in silence for a moment longer, the sound of the ocean filling the space between them, until Harper gently nudged Maya’s shoulder.
“Be honest with me,” she said softly. “Do you love him?”
Maya let out a shaky breath, her eyes flicking toward the stars before falling back to the ground. “Maybe… How would I even know?”
Her voice was raw—honest, defensive, mostly… lost.
“It’s still so new. I mean, I’ve known of him for years—through magazines, headlines, interviews. He was always this… larger-than-life figure. But I’ve only really known him—personally—for what, a month?”
She let out a dry, breathless laugh. “Last night, I had my first kiss. My first real romantic kiss. And then this morning—what, eight, nine hours ago?—I agreed to be his girlfriend.”
She paused, her voice tremb
