Tessa hadn’t meant to look for him, but she did.
Every day for the next week, she found excuses to walk the long route through the neighborhood. Past the small café where they’d first talked. Past the bookstore he’d mentioned loving. Past the small shortcut they always went through anytime he walked her home.
But she didn’t see him. Not even once.
It wasn’t until Wednesday, the next week, that she admitted to herself — painfully, reluctantly, that she missed him. Not romantically. No, not that. She wasn’t stupid enough to use the word romantic for anything anymore.
But she had felt something around him. Ease.
A possibility — even if it was only the possibility of friendship.
And now the possibility had vanished. Just like that.
She hated that it made her stomach twist. She hated th
