Chapter 6- Closer than miles
286 Words
Élise
She found herself checking time zones now—absently wondering what he might be doing in Milan whenever her phone buzzed.
Every small update from Luca mattered.
“I saw a guy in a yellow hoodie today. Thought it was you.”
She smiled. He remembered her favorite color.
Sometimes their chats were silly—about music, or what they’d do if they had one hour together in the same city. Other times, the messages carried weight, like invisible strings tugging at the heart.
One night, Élise sent:
“Is it weird to say I think I’m scared? Of feeling something real. With someone I’ve never even hugged.”
He took two minutes to reply. She counted them.
“It’s not weird. I’m scared too. But maybe that’s how we know it’s real. The fear makes it matter.”
That night, she walked through her apartment barefoot, hugging her blanket tighter. She whispered to herself, “He gets me. Even from oceans away.”
Luca
He didn't know how to tell her that he looked for her in strangers now.
The voice that called his name in a dream last week? Sounded like her.
He scrolled through their conversations, smiling at how her texts always started soft—“Hey you,” or “Guess what?”—and ended with warmth. Like home.
When she sent a photo of her hands wrapped around a cup of tea, captioned, “You’d love this chai,” he saved it.
And then typed:
“When we meet, I want to see those hands wrap around mine first.”
He deleted it.
Then sent it anyway.
Her reply was one heart emoji. But it felt like a hug.
- Writer
