REINA
The next picture made my heart squeeze.
Me and Paolo.
Our first date as a couple.
We were sitting too close in that little café downtown—his arm slung around me, his grin boyish and smug, mine soft and shy. I remembered the way his thumb had brushed over my knuckles under the table, the way he’d looked at me like I was something fragile and rare.
My fingers trembled as I traced his face in the photograph, the glossy paper cool beneath my skin.
His smile looked so alive, so full of promise it hurt to look at it.
A sad smile tugged at my lips before I could stop it. The kind that carried both warmth and regret.
If only I could reach through that picture, freeze that moment—before everything went wrong, before I learned that love could feel this heavy.
“He’s been good to you,”
