Summer in Montreal didn’t slip in softly, it blazed.After months of steel-gray skies and breath that turned to ghosts, the city exhaled. It came alive with the hunger of something that had been waiting too long.Patios overflowed with laughter, music tangled through the air, and people moved as though sunlight itself was a reason to believe again.
Abbie felt it too, that loosening in her chest, the gentle unfreezing of everything that had been tight and tired inside her.Her first year at McGill was behind her. The sleepless nights, the endless reports, the meticulous data collection, all of it had been worth it.Her professors were pleased, her grades steady. For once, she wasn’t running to catch up.Montreal finally felt like hers.
Summer was simple: morning shifts at the bakery, weekend f
