Maria:
We don’t stay on the balcony much longer after that.
Not because anything interrupts us. Nothing does. The night is still loud somewhere behind the doors, people laughing, glasses clinking, voices rising and falling like it’s all part of a script they’ve memorized. But out there, it feels separate. Like we stepped into something that wasn’t meant to last.
Daniel says my name once, low, like he’s testing how it sounds now.
“Maria.”
I look at him, waiting. I don’t even know for what. An explanation, maybe. A correction. Something that puts what just happened into words so I don’t have to sit with it on my own.
But he just looks at me for a second, then says, “We should go back.”
And just like that, it’s over. Or at least… contained.
I nod. It’s easier than asking for more.
Th
