LOGINElliot stood exactly where Lilly had left him, looking at the door she had walked out of, then slowly turning to Zane with the expression of someone who needs a moment to process what just happened.“What was that?”“She was proving a point,” Zane said.Elliot blinked. Then something shifted in his face — the specific look of someone who has just revised their opinion of a person significantly upward. “She’s something else.”“She’s my tutor.”“Are you two—”“You know I don’t do girlfriends.” Zane picked up his water bottle. “Come on. Let’s work out.”They trained hard — the focused, almost punishing kind of session that leaves no room for conversation — and by the end of it both of them were quiet in the satisfied way of people who have used their bodies properly. They headed back to the house still catching their breath.They found Blade on the sofa.With a girl.Who looked up when they came in and said brightly, “I should go — I’ll see you later,” and collected herself and left with
The morning shift had a particular quality that Lilly had not fully appreciated until she was standing in the middle of it having gone to bed at two in the morning.She moved through the restaurant on autopilot — wiping down the counter, checking the orders, trying to remember why she had agreed to cover this shift — when a voice cut through the noise.“Are you okay?”She looked up.Ethan.Standing at the counter, looking at her with the careful attention she had noticed he gave most things, unhurried and genuine.“I’m yes. I’m okay.” She straightened. “Thank you. For last night. You didn’t have to do that.”He nodded once, accepting the gratitude without making anything of it. “Can I get a burrito?”“Of course.”She put the order in and had it back to him within minutes, sliding it across the counter.“Here you go.”He took it. Paused. “Aren’t you tired? You were at the party until late and now you’re here.”Lilly looked at him. “I didn’t plan the scheduling very well,” she admitted.
Ethan stood up from the bed and looked between them with the easy composure of someone who knows when a room no longer needs him.“You’re here,” he said to Zane. “I’ll leave you two to it.” He glanced at Lilly briefly. “Take care of yourself.”He walked out.Zane watched him go, then crossed the room and crouched down in front of Lilly, bringing himself to her level. He looked at her properly — not the quick social scan he gave most situations, but the actual kind of looking.“What happened, Mauli? You were fine twenty minutes ago.” He paused. “I looked around and you were gone. What happened?”She looked at her hands. “I just — I remembered something.”“Something like what?”She turned it over in her mind — whether to tell him, how much, where to start — and then her phone rang.She looked at the screen.Mum.“I need to take this,” she said. “Could you step outside for a minute?”“Yeah.” He stood. “Take your time. Text me after.”She nodded.He pulled the door mostly closed behind hi
“Why is your arm on me like that?”Lilly turned to look at Zane with the specific expression she reserved for things that required immediate correction.Zane didn’t move his arm. “Relax. We need to make this convincing.” He glanced toward the front of the classroom. “Besides — he’s not even looking at us right now.”Ethan was sitting a few seats ahead, turned slightly away, apparently absorbed in something on his desk.Zane picked up the water bottle beside him and threw it toward the front of the room.The entire class turned.Ethan turned with them — and his eyes landed on Zane and Lilly, close together, Zane’s arm draped casually across the back of her chair. Something shifted in his expression. Not nothing. Definitely not nothing.“See?” Zane said quietly, eyes forward. “Told you.”Lilly kept her face neutral and felt quietly triumphant. “You’re going to make this work, aren’t you.”“Obviously.”Across the room, Hannah and Dave exchanged a look — the look of two people who have be
Lilly stood outside the door and told herself she was not nervous.She knocked.Elliot opened it — looked at her, registered that she was pretty, and produced the particular smirk of someone filing information away for later use.“Hi. I’m Lilly. Zane’s tutor. I came to see him.”“Come in, come in.” He stepped aside with the easy hospitality of someone who considers all visitors equally welcome regardless of context. “Stay here — I’ll have him downstairs in a minute.”She stepped inside and looked around.Trophies everywhere. On shelves, on surfaces, lined up with the casual abundance of people who win things so regularly they’ve stopped finding places to put them. Hockey gear. Photographs. The comfortable disorder of a house shared by people who spend most of their time elsewhere.“Hi.”She turned.A girl stood a few feet away — slightly boyish in her style, sharp-eyed, looking at Lilly with the direct assessing gaze of someone who makes it their business to know things.Is this Jade?
Saturday?” Lilly asked.“Practice,” Zane said, settling himself on the counter with the easy comfort of someone who considers every surface a valid seat.“Today?”“Evening practice.”“Thursday?”“Practice.”“Friday?”“Music classes.” He looked at her. “See — we’re both busy. This is going to be harder to arrange than I thought.”Lilly came around the counter and stood in front of him. “So when exactly—”“Sunday,” he said. “My place.”She looked at him. “Your place? What if your girlfriend walks in?”“Girlfriend.” He said the word the way one might say a word in a foreign language they don’t speak. “That is genuinely not in my vocabulary. I don’t do that.” He paused. “And yes, it has to be my place — because the person we need to convince lives nearby and she needs to see it with her own eyes.”“Who?”“My best friend’s younger sister. Jade.” He said the name with the particular weight of someone explaining a complicated force of nature. “She runs information on this campus better than
Monday morning came faster than Zara expected.She sat nervously in the interview chair, her palms slightly trembling. She had been rejected so many times before that fear silently clawed at her chest. What if this was just like all the others? What if hope failed her again?Before leaving the orph
Zara was quiet the entire journey back to the office. Adrian noticed the storm behind her silence. She had finally spoken her mind, and though a wave of relief washed over her, it still wasn’t enough. If she could, she would have wrapped her fury around his throat and squeezed the life out of the p
Zara was among the first to arrive at the office that morning. She settled at her desk with quiet purpose, diving into her tasks with unwavering determination. Every keystroke, every calculation, every decision reminded her of why she had returned she loved her work, truly and deeply, and that pass
Junior had begun coming to the orphanage with Lilly and the other children from school. Zara, having given up the search for a job, stayed behind at the orphanage, tending to the tiny children who hadn’t yet stepped into school, working alongside the other staff. She never complained. In fact, what







