After the car incident, something shifted between us… not in a way I could point to and say, there, that was the exact moment it changed. More like a general loosening of whatever restraint we'd both been gripping onto for months without ever discussing it out loud. Like a knot pulled tight for so long it had started to forget how to hold, giving way one slow inch at a time.
He texted more after that. Not constantly… Jude had never been a constant-texter, never the type to send good morning messages or memes or check in for no particular reason at all. But more than before, undeniably more. A photo here, no caption attached. An article there, usually something he knew I'd have an opinion about.
Once, at eleven on a Wednesday night, out of absolutely nowhere.
“Are you awake?”
And when
