CHAPTER ELEVEN
PROXIMITY
ISABELLA
Normal lasted exactly three hours. Three. By midday, I had already broken at least two of my own silent rules. I looked too long. I thought too much. And worst of all, I stayed. Because leaving would mean admitting something I wasn’t ready to say out loud.
———
Lunch was Camille’s idea. She dragged us into a seaside restaurant tucked just below the cliffs, all white linen and quiet luxury, the kind of place where everything looked effortless and cost more than it should.
“Sit,” she said, sliding into a chair like she owned the place. I sat across from her, deliberately choosing the seat that put the ocean directly in my line of sight. Not him. Never him.
“You’re being weird again,” Camille said, reaching for the wine list.
“I’m not.”
“You are.”
“I
