Damien's POV
I woke up in Edinburgh and she was still there.
That was the first thought. Not profound. Just true and quietly extraordinary in the way of things you hadn't known you needed until they were real.
She was asleep on her side facing away from me. The ring on her finger catching the grey morning light coming through the curtain gap. The aerospace book on the nightstand where I had left it.
I lay there and didn't move.
Outside Edinburgh was doing its morning thing. Muted and old and completely indifferent to the fact that something had shifted permanently in a small hotel room overnight.
I thought about the word stay.
I had prepared other versions. Longer ones. More constructed. I had actually written something down at three in the morning two weeks ago and read it back and
