“Mind if I sit here?”
I stared at her for a second, words caught in my throat.
Then I nodded. Just once.
She gave a small smile and sat down across from me, quietly unpacking her lunch. She didn’t push, didn’t start talking right away. She just sat and ate in silence. And surprisingly… it wasn’t uncomfortable.
A few minutes passed. I kept my eyes on my tray, grateful she wasn’t trying to fill the air with small talk. But then, as she finished chewing a bite of bread, she cleared her throat and said something that completely blindsided me.
“You know,” she said, not looking at me. “Maybe you should stop being so timid.”
I blinked and glanced up, surprised.
She met my eyes, serious yet calm.
“I mean it. I saw what you did to Ava—or whatever her name is. The tall one with the fake smil
