The evening air was thick with the scent of damp earth and distant rain, the kind that clung to skin and made everything feel heavier, more alive. The park bench beneath Iris creaked softly as she shifted, her fingers tracing idle patterns on the worn wood. The theater across the street hummed with the muffled laughter and music of a crowd, its neon sign casting a flickering pink glow over the pavement. She hadn’t meant to stay this late, just a quick walk after work, a moment to breathe but now, with the night wrapping around her like a second skin, she didn’t want to leave.
Noah sat beside her, close enough that the heat of his body bled into the space between them, close enough that she could catch the faint, warm scent of his cologne, something rich and spiced, like cedar and clove. H
