Archie
We were sitting on the small balcony off my study, the city stretching out beneath us in scattered lights, a bottle of wine mostly forgotten between us as the evening settled into something quiet and unhurried. Fiona had her legs tucked beneath her, leaning against my shoulder, and I found myself, not for the first time lately, simply watching her instead of paying attention to whatever conversation had drifted into comfortable silence between us.
I hadn't planned to say it that night. I'd been carrying the words for weeks now, turning them over privately, waiting for some moment that felt significant enough to warrant them. But sitting there, watching the city lights reflected faintly in her eyes, the words simply arrived on their own, no longer willing to wait for some perfectly
