The room hung heavy with silence, the weight of unspoken truths pressing down like the summer heat outside. Maya’s heart thundered in her chest, every breath feeling too loud in the stillness. Across the table, Ethan’s eyes gleamed with a mix of nostalgia and challenge, breaking the fragile quiet.
Then, as if picking up the thread of a story long paused, he leaned forward slightly and began.
“I ran out after that,” Ethan went on. “Got whatever I could. Cake, snacks, even a toy truck. Knocked on her door half an hour later—” he shot Maya a sideways look “—and she looked like she’d seen a ghost.”
Ethan’s smile curved slightly as he continued, swirling the glass in his hand with an air of comfortable nostalgia.
“She asked me what I was doing there, standing at her front door. I came up wi
