Noah settled into campus faster than Lena expected.
By the middle of the week he had a working knowledge of the main buildings, a temporary ID that actually scanned, and a habit of appearing at the edge of her day with easy continuity. Coffee between lectures. A shared bench for ten minutes when schedules overlapped. Once, a walk to the far parking lot because he had parked in the wrong section and wanted company while he looked. None of it was dramatic. That was the problem. In a life full of sharp edges, Noah’s presence remained bluntly kind, and Lena kept reaching for it.
Oliver noticed every instance.
He did not say so directly at first. He did not need to. Lena felt his attention track her across the quad whenever Noah was beside her. Tessa felt it too; Lena saw the way the other g
