The day had been unusually calm. By the time June rolled around, life seemed to move at a steady, almost unremarkable pace.
Liam Hart had been on a business trip for two days now, and Allison "Allie" Brooks found herself feeling an unfamiliar ache of longing. The silence of his absence was deafening. This trip, his longest yet, had stretched into a week, with no firm return date in sight.
“You're pining, Allie,” Chloe West teased, glancing up from her book as Allie sat staring at her phone for the hundredth time. “You’re like one of those tragic heroines in old movies, waiting by the window.”
Allie rolled her eyes but didn’t deny it. “I… I just miss him. Is that so bad?” She sighed. “Even a two-word text would feel like sunshine right now.”
Chloe smirked. “Sunshine? Wow, he’s really go
