COLD UNTIL YOU

CHAPTER 7: CHOICES AND DEPARTURES

Spring offered a different kind of ache: hope wrapped in the threat of goodbye. Eliana received a letter that began with congratulations and ended with an acceptance into a summer exchange program in Florence. The news was a balm and a blade at once. She had dreamed of learning in that city of light, to stand where great painters had stood and breathe the same air. The idea of leaving felt like starting a new life and also like abandoning a wound that might never close.

Adrian heard the news through a mutual friend and was stunned by how raw it made him feel. The thought of her crossing oceans—learning lines from a different sky, meeting people who would see her differently—made his chest tighten with unfamiliar jealousy. He found himself at the fountain one night, asking the dark if it was fair that someone else might learn to love the brightness he had once ignored.

When he finally spoke to her, the conversation was awkward and honest. “You’re leaving,” he said simply.

She nodded. “I go next month.”

He forced a smile that did not reach his eyes. “That’s good for you.”

She searched his face. “And you?”

He hesitated, familiar defenses rising. “I want you to go and be everything you deserve.”

“Do you?” she asked softly. He did not answer right away. The silence between them was thick with regret and unsaid farewells. “Goodbye, Adrian,” she told him, and the word weighed like a closing door.

Watching her walk away into the library’s light, he understood that this departure might force him to either change or lose her forever.