I held Viel close, a faint smile lingering on my lips as our bare bodies lay beneath a single white sheet. The warmth of his skin still clung to mine evidence of the moment we had both surrendered to something neither of us tried to stop.
And yet, beneath that warmth, something in me remained cold.
He hadn’t spoken to me the entire day.
I didn’t know what I had done wrong, where I had failed, what I had missed, or why he had suddenly pulled away as if I were someone distant, someone easy to leave behind. So when he chose not to lie beside me, I swallowed what little pride I had left and followed him.
I had been ready for rejection.
For him to turn away.
To push me aside.
But he didn’t.
Now we lay here, close enough to feel each other breathe… and still, I wasn’t sure if the distanc
