The silence between us wasn’t empty anymore. It was full of the things we didn’t need to say, the kind of quiet that only exists when two people have stopped pretending.
I took a bite of the jollof rice, the spice familiar and comforting on my tongue, but my attention never really left her face. She was eating slowly, savoring each mouthful as if she were relearning how to nourish herself. The tension that usually lived in her jaw had softened, replaced by a strange, serene focus.
"You're staring," she murmured, a faint smile touching her lips without breaking her gaze from her plate.
"I'm observing," I corrected gently. "There's a difference."
She chuckled softly, shaking her head. "You always did have a way with words, Ella."
"And you always had a way of hiding behind them," I count
