Ariana's POV
I found him standing at the window when I finally worked up the nerve to knock.
The door had been left slightly open, as though he already expected someone. I told myself that meant nothing. But when I stepped inside, and he turned to face me, the look in his eyes told me otherwise.
He had already guessed.
"You arranged this room," he said. Not a question.
I closed the door quietly behind me. "I did."
"Why?"
"Because I needed you to notice something was different," I said, "before you heard it from anyone else."
His jaw tightened slightly, and for a moment neither of us spoke. The silence between us had always been comfortable before, a shared space rather than a gap. This one felt charged, like the air before a storm breaks.
"Two weeks," he said finally, his voice lo
