The days that followed were quiet—uncomfortably so. There was an unspoken tension in the air between Luca and me. It wasn’t something we could easily talk about. Not yet. Not after everything that had happened. I kept my distance, not out of desire, but because I needed space. I needed to figure out how to navigate the feelings that had tangled around my heart, twisted them in ways I couldn’t fully understand.
The storm inside me hadn’t stopped, but it was quieter now, like the calm before something worse.
Luca gave me space, though I could feel his presence at the edge of everything. Every time I looked up, there he was—watching me, waiting, hoping. But there was a wall between us now. I had built it. I was the one who had pushed him away, even if it wasn’t what I had wanted.
