CHAPTER 4-FLORENCE AWAITS
230 Words
Chapter Four – Florence Awaits
The plane descended through a sweep of clouds, revealing the terracotta rooftops of Florence, glowing under the afternoon sun. Claire pressed her forehead to the window, her heart thudding. Weeks of anticipation had built to this moment.
At the arrivals hall, the crowd blurred until she found him—Ethan, leaning casually against a pillar, sketchbook under his arm. When he saw her, his face lit with the same warmth she’d carried in her mind since that rainy day.
They walked through narrow streets, the air rich with the scent of espresso and baked bread. Ethan led her to a quiet piazza where a street musician played a lilting tune.
“This is where I wanted our first Florence memory to be,” he said.
She laughed softly. “Not the Duomo? Or the Ponte Vecchio?”
“Those can wait. This… feels like us.”
They sat on a stone bench, sharing gelato, the sunlight pooling like gold at their feet. Ethan opened his sketchbook, revealing page after page—her face, drawn in different moods and moments, from their café chats to imagined scenes of them wandering Italian streets.
Claire felt the city hum around them, but all she could see was him. Somewhere between Elm Street and Florence, this chance encounter had become something she could no longer imagine walking away from.
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