Amara woke the next morning with a strange mix of guilt and warmth swirling beneath her ribs. She lay perfectly still, eyes fixed on the ceiling, trying to separate her thoughts into neat lines the way she sorted files at work. But nothing in her chest wanted to line up. Everything spilled into everything else.
The memory of the café clung to her skin.Leo's steady attention.His quiet voice.The way it felt to talk without measuring every word.
She pressed her palm against her forehead, as if she could push the thoughts away.
She had spent three hours with a man who wasn't her fiancé.Three hours she didn't want to end.
And now she had to face Daniel.
He came by that afternoon, announced only with a short text.
"I'm outside."
Amara forced herself to take a slow breath before opening the door. She smoothed her hair out of habit, even though it already looked fine. She straightened her clothes, forcing herself into the polished version of herself she knew Daniel preferred.
When she opened the door, he smiled and leaned in to kiss her cheek. "You look tired," he said.
He meant it as concern. It landed like a small judgment.
"I didn't sleep well," she said.
"Probably from all this wedding stress." He stepped inside without waiting for her to invite him. "My mother sent over the updated seating chart. She wants your opinion."
Of course she did.
Amara closed the door quietly. "Sure. We can look at it."
Daniel set his jacket over a chair. "We'll fix everything today and take the pressure off you. I know you're overwhelmed."
It was meant to comfort her, but the words tightened something in her instead. Daniel always wanted to fix things. Tidy them. Control them until they obeyed his plan. He rarely asked how she felt unless it was to get her back on track.
He took out his laptop and opened the seating chart. A grid of names filled the screen like a battle map.
"Your cousin Leila shouldn't sit next to my Aunt Grace," Daniel said. "They clashed at the engagement dinner. And your mother wants the florist changed. Again."
Amara nodded, although she hadn't been the one who wanted the florist changed the first time.
Daniel tapped his pen rhythmically against the table as he studied the chart. "We should finalize the vows soon," he added. "I already wrote mine. I can read them to you if you want."
She forced a small smile. "Later maybe."
He didn't look up. "Okay."
His tone wasn't harsh. It wasn't cold. It was polite and firm, as always. Daniel's life felt like a series of bullet points, each one checked off with purpose. Practical. Predictable.
Safe.
But as she sat beside him, a warm memory slipped in.
Leo's voice at the café.Soft, steady, unguarded.The way he leaned in slightly when he listened, like every word she said mattered.
A heat curled low beneath her ribs at the thought. She hated that her mind drifted there so easily. Hated that it felt like something alive and breathing inside her.
Daniel's voice cut through her thoughts. "You're distracted."
She looked up quickly. "Sorry."
He sighed gently, running a hand through his hair. "It's fine. You've just been so distant lately. Is everything okay?"
Her stomach twisted. He wasn't wrong. She had been distant. She had been quiet. She had been slipping through cracks she didn't know she had.
"I'm just tired," she said carefully. "It's been a long week."
Daniel nodded, accepting that answer far too easily. "We'll take a weekend trip after the wedding. A break will fix everything."
Fix everything.
He said it like their relationship was a project that needed tightening rather than a living thing that needed listening.
She felt the warmth from earlier shift into a quiet ache.
"Maybe," she murmured.
Daniel closed his laptop. "Actually, I wanted to talk about something." He reached for her hand, holding it lightly. His touch was warm and familiar. It should have comforted her. Instead, her pulse jumped in a confused rhythm she couldn't control.
"I want us to start premarital counseling," he said. "Just a few sessions. My parents did it. I think it'll set us up well."
"That sounds… helpful," she said, though her voice lacked conviction.
Daniel smiled. "Good. My mother knows a counselor. I'll set the appointment."
His mother.Of course.
A small coil of frustration tightened in her. This was their marriage. Their future. But somehow his family always had a hand in it, shaping it before she could.
As he talked about schedules and appointments, Amara found herself drifting again. Leo's laughter from yesterday drifted up uninvited. It had been natural and warm. Not polite. Not curated. Just real.
Real heat.Real presence.Real connection.
She swallowed hard and tried to focus on Daniel. She owed him that. She owed him her loyalty. She owed him honesty. She was going to marry him. She couldn't afford to lose herself in fantasies or flutters of emotion that made no sense.
But her body betrayed her. Her heart reacted before her mind could catch up.
When Daniel touched her hand again, she felt nothing spark. Just steady warmth. No rush. No breath catching in her throat. No pull like a tide.
With Leo, three hours had passed in a blink.With Daniel, fifteen minutes felt like an obligation.
She hated it.Hated the comparison she wasn't supposed to make.Hated that her heart had started measuring the space between these two men.
Daniel squeezed her hand lightly. "I love you, Amara."
Her throat tightened.
"I love you too," she answered automatically.
But the words felt different leaving her lips.Not wrong.Not false.Just… polite.
A habit.A line she had practiced.A script she knew too well.
Daniel leaned in and kissed her forehead before standing. "Do you want to go to dinner later? My parents want us to come by and review some decor samples."
She felt her breath flatten. "I think I need a quiet night in. I'm not feeling great."
He paused. "Are you sick?"
"No. Just overwhelmed."
"Okay," he said. "But let me know if you change your mind."
She nodded, avoiding his eyes.
He left a few minutes later, kissing her cheek again before heading out. The moment the door shut, Amara leaned her forehead against it and exhaled slowly.
Her whole body felt conflicted.
Daniel was polite love.The kind that was safe, structured, familiar. He offered stability, a clear plan, a life that made sense on paper.
But something inside her had come alive during that coffee with Leo. Something Daniel had never lit within her. Something that felt dangerous and warm and frightening all at once.
Real heat.Not physical, though there was an undercurrent she couldn't deny.It was emotional heat. The kind that made her feel awake. The kind that made her feel like she could breathe without permission.
She pushed away from the door and sat on the couch, her hands trembling slightly.
This was wrong.This pull toward Leo.This comparison she kept making.This ache that rose whenever she thought of him.
She needed to push him out of her mind. She needed to focus on her fiancé, the man she had chosen, the man waiting to build a life with her.
She picked up her phone, ready to distract herself.
One message notification blinked.
Her breath stopped.
Leo.
She opened it before she could think.
"Hope today is softer on you than yesterday was."
Simple.Kind.Not crossing a line.Yet it hit her harder than anything Daniel had said all day.
Because Leo meant it.Because Leo saw her.Because Leo made her feel something Daniel never had.
Something alive.Something warm.Something dangerous.
She typed back with cautious fingers.
"Thank you. I'm trying."
His reply came seconds later.
"Try less. Breathe more."
A soft, helpless smile tugged at her lips.
And she knew she was slipping.
Caught between polite love and real heat, her heart was beginning to lean.
She just didn't know which direction it would fall.