“Get dressed,” Ryan told Eve that evening, calm and certain as he buttoned his cuff. “We’re going out.”
Eve paused in the doorway of their bedroom, hair half pinned, still in that strange in-between state where she wasn’t sure if she was allowed to want anything soft anymore. The last few days had trained her body to brace for impact even in quiet rooms.
“Out where?” she asked.
Ryan glanced at her in the mirror. “Dinner.”
Eve’s brows rose slightly. “Just… dinner?”
Ryan’s mouth tilted, barely there. “Yes.”
Something about the way he said it, simple, unbothered, made Eve’s chest tighten. She didn’t trust simplicity anymore. Not with the way rumours could turn into a storm overnight, not with the way Mathew’s one sentence had crawled into her bones like a warning.
Ryan stepped closer,
