Amara tried to slip back into her routine the next day. She woke up at her usual time, made her usual breakfast, and followed her usual commute to work. Everything looked the same, but she didn't feel the same. Not after that walk. Not after the quiet freedom she tasted for the first time in months.
She sat at her desk, staring at her computer screen while her inbox filled with messages from coworkers and vendors asking for final approvals. She clicked through them mechanically, but her mind kept drifting somewhere else.
To someone else.
Leo.
She shouldn't be thinking about him. She knew that. He was supposed to be a passing moment in her life. A stranger she met on a rainy night. A conversation she wasn't meant to keep replaying.
But she remembered the way he looked at her. Not with expectation. Not with calculation. Not with the kind of polite distance Daniel carried without realizing it.
Leo looked at her like she was a person, not a bride, not a checklist, not a responsibility.
And that simple difference had changed everything.
By midday, she couldn't pretend anymore. Her attention was shot. Her thoughts were tangled. She grabbed her phone and walked to a quiet corner near the stairwell where she knew no one from the office would bother her.
She opened her messages.
No new text from Leo.
Good, she told herself. That was good. That was simpler. Easier.
So why did her chest tighten with disappointment?
She scrolled up to their last conversation. His words felt warm even through a screen.
"Escape is the first breath. Clarity usually comes after."
She let the phone rest against her forehead. This was wrong. Dangerous. Confusing. She was engaged. She had a wedding date. She had a fiancé who trusted her.
She shouldn't want to remember a man she barely knew.
But she did.
And she couldn't forget him no matter how many times she told herself she should.
That evening, Daniel invited her over for dinner. She almost said no, but the guilt pushed her to accept. She needed to see him. She needed to look at the man she planned to marry and remind herself why she chose this path in the first place.
His apartment was spotless as always, smelling faintly of lemon and the pasta he was cooking. Music played softly in the background. He greeted her with a warm embrace and a kiss on the cheek.
"You look tired," he said.
"I am," she admitted. "It's been a long week."
"Wedding pressure," he said, smiling lightly. "It'll be worth it."
She nodded, even though something inside her didn't quite agree.
They sat at the table. Daniel talked about work. He talked about travel plans for their honeymoon. He talked about the new condo they were considering buying after the wedding.
He talked about everything except her. Everything except what felt heavy inside her.
And why would he? She hadn't told him. She didn't know how to.
She pushed her pasta around her plate and forced a few bites. He didn't notice her lack of appetite.
While he chatted about the mortgage rates he had been comparing, she found her mind wandering back to that rainy night. To the moment she first heard Leo's voice. To the warmth in his tone, the softness in his questions, the way he seemed to listen with his full attention.
She remembered their brief talk like it was carved into her. It should've faded by now. A stranger's kindness should not have lingered this long.
But it had.
And that scared her more than she wanted to admit.
"Amara?" Daniel's voice broke through her thoughts. "Are you listening?"
She blinked. "Sorry. My mind drifted."
"Work stress?"
"Something like that."
He reached across the table and squeezed her hand. "It'll settle down after the wedding. Everything will feel normal again."
Normal.
The word landed in her chest like a weight.
Normal meant predictable. Expected. Already mapped out.
Normal didn't mean alive.
She nodded anyway, because she didn't know what else to say. She forced a smile that didn't fit her face.
Daniel squeezed her hand again, then released it and continued talking about their future.
His voice blended into the hum of the room. Familiar, steady, dependable.
But it didn't reach her the way it used to.
She felt distant, sitting just a few feet away from the man she was supposed to marry but feeling as if they lived in different worlds.
After dinner, Daniel walked her to the door. "Can you stop by tomorrow?" he asked. "We should finalize the menu."
"Maybe," she said. "I'll see how my day goes."
He didn't question her hesitation. He didn't look deeper. He simply kissed her cheek and said, "Let me know."
When she stepped into the hallway, she let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding.
Her phone buzzed in her purse. Her pulse jumped as she reached for it.
Leo?
No. A reminder from her wedding planning app.
She almost laughed at the absurd disappointment she felt.
In the elevator, she leaned against the wall and closed her eyes. She should not be waiting for a message from another man. She should not be craving someone's presence when she already had a fiancé.
She was supposed to forget Leo.To let that chance moment fade.To push it out of her mind and move forward with her life.
So why did she feel like she was losing something every time she tried?
At home, she kicked off her shoes, sat on the edge of her bed, and stared at her phone again. She wasn't going to text him. She wasn't. She had promised herself she would stop feeding this quiet flame before it grew out of control.
She pressed the power button and set the phone aside.
Two minutes later, she picked it up again.
This was ridiculous. She needed control. She needed distance. She needed—
A message appeared.
Her breath froze.
Leo.
Her hands trembled slightly as she opened it.
"I walked by that café you mentioned earlier. Thought of you. Hope today was lighter."
She didn't breathe. She didn't move. She just stared at the words like they were a secret she had been waiting to hear.
He thought of her.
He hoped her day was lighter.
Simple. Gentle. Nothing inappropriate.
And everything she wasn't getting from the man she was supposed to marry.
She typed slowly, her heart beating too fast.
"It wasn't lighter. But the walk helped."
A moment passed. Then:
"Sometimes a small step is the biggest one."
She closed her eyes.
Why did his words feel like safety? Why did they feel like truth? Why did she trust him so easily when she had known him for such a short time?
She shouldn't. She knew that.
But feelings don't wait politely until life is convenient.
She typed one more message.
"Thank you for checking on me."
Three dots appeared.
"You don't have to thank me."
She held the phone to her chest, trying to calm the rush inside her.
Leo was supposed to be a stranger she forgot.
But she couldn't.
He was becoming the quiet thought that lingered in her mind.The warm voice she heard when everything else felt heavy.The presence she couldn't explain, couldn't ignore, and couldn't forget.
And that was the most dangerous truth of all.
Because the more she remembered him,the more she questioned the life she had built,and the more she feared the moment when her heart would stop pretending.
The man she was supposed to forget was becoming the one she remembered the most.