The next week felt different.
It wasn't the cold silence from when we were fighting. It also wasn't the intense, tightly planned closeness we had before. It was quieter than both. Slower. Like something new being put together piece by piece.
Aaron kept his promise. He still texted, but in a different way.
Aaron: It's raining here. Hope you brought an umbrella.
Aaron: Read an article on adaptive gradient descent. Made me think of you.
They were just thoughts. Little pieces of his day. He wasn't monitoring me, he was sharing.
I replied the same way.
Cameron: Forgot the umbrella. Now I look like a drowned rat.
Cameron: I read it. The author messes up the logic on page three.
It felt easy. Normal.
On Thursday, I stayed late in the library studying for my Statistical Inference midterm. I was deep into formulas when my phone rang.
Aaron.
"Hey," I answered, keeping my voice low. The library was quiet. "Everything okay?"
