“I would love to spend the night, but I have an early morning…”
Michael’s voice floated somewhere above me as he searched for his clothes, while I stretched on the sheets like a cat enjoying the warmth he left behind.
“Your loss, not mine,” I murmured, teasing him with a slow arch of my back.
He groaned and leaned down to kiss me, lingering just long enough to make me wish he’d stay.
But when the door finally closed behind him, the silence hit me like a drop in temperature.
Something in the air felt… incomplete.
Like a presence had been ripped away too soon.
I tried to shake it off — shower, pajamas, warm light, e-reader — but that strange yearning settled under my skin like static.
Eventually, sleep dragged me under, and the dream came fast and heavy.
The world shook around me li
