The applause rang through the gallery like gentle thunder soft, collected, but rising all the same. Alina stood at the front near the podium, her name just announced as the winner of the "Emerging Vision" award. Her photo now stood bathed in warm light, admired not just for its composition, but for its emotion.
Yet in the middle of the crowd, her eyes sought only one thing.
He stood just off to the left, not clapping too hard or wearing any forced expression just watching her. Present. Proud. Real.
And when their eyes met, something passed between them that had nothing to do with the photograph. Something older. Deeper. Almost dangerous in its tenderness.
He mouthed the words, "I'm proud of you."
She felt it in her chest like a second heartbeat.
As she held the certificate, posing briefly for a photo, all she could think about was the way his gaze hadn't faltered not once. Not during the speech. Not during the applause. Not even when others surrounded her with congratulations.
His eyes had been on her.
Only her.
After the event ended, guests filtered out. Some stayed to mingle. Harper winked at Alina from across the room before giving her space.
Eli walked over slowly, no rush in his steps.
"You were... breathtaking," he said.
She looked down, smiled. "I thought you'd say the photo."
"I did," he replied. "But I meant you."
Her breath caught again, that ache in her chest returning the one that said she was dangerously close to letting go.
"Do you want to walk for a while?" she asked, trying to hold back the trembling in her voice.
"With you?"
She nodded.
"Always."
The night outside had cooled. The city hummed in its usual soft chaos, but between them, everything was still.
They walked shoulder to shoulder, sometimes brushing hands. Neither of them pulled away.
"Did you ever think we'd end up here?" Alina asked.
"Here as in... tonight?"
"No, here as in... this. You and me."
Eli looked over at her. Her eyes were searching for something truth or comfort, he wasn't sure.
"I don't know what I expected," he said. "But I know I never expected someone like you."
She stopped walking. "What does that mean?"
He turned to her, closer now than before. "I mean I thought I'd spend most of my life watching people come and go. But then you came in... and stayed."
She stared up at him, visibly shaken by the honesty in his voice. "You always say things like that... like you mean every word."
"I do."
They resumed walking again, the air between them denser, heavier with all that hadn't been said.
"So," Alina said as the bookstore came into view, "how are you going to get in if the store's closed and the owner's gone?"
Eli chuckled, pulling keys from his pocket. "Who said the owner's gone?"
She stopped in her tracks.
"You?"
He unlocked the door. "Welcome to my world."
She stepped in slowly, eyes wide. "You never told me."
"You never asked."
She turned toward him, lips parted, expression unreadable. "So all this time... the notes, the poems, the books you left out for me"
"Were mine to give."
She stared at him.
And the moment stretched.
Too long. Too loud in silence.
Eli stepped forward slowly, not asking this time. Not waiting.
His hands gently cupped her jaw, thumbs tracing the edge of her cheekbones. Her breath hitched, but she didn't back away.
Their foreheads touched first.
Then her lips parted.
He kissed her slow at first. Like the words he couldn't speak.
But then she melted into him. And something broke open.
He turned her, slowly, pressing her back to the bookshelf wall.
Books rustled.
His body against hers now, full of ache, of want, of years unlived.
His hand tangled in her hair. The other traced down the slope of her waist.
She gasped against his mouth, and he swallowed it whole.
Their kiss deepened hungry but reverent. Not careless. But desperate in the way only something patient can be when it's finally allowed to burn.
Her fingers gripped his shirt. Pulled. Anchored.
He broke the kiss, lips barely an inch from hers. Breathing her in.
"I've been dying to do that," he whispered, voice wrecked.
She looked up at him, lips swollen, cheeks flushed. "Then do it again."
He didn't hesitate.
This time, it wasn't just a kiss. It was surrender.
Their hands explored, lingered, tangled.
His breath grew heavier.
Her heart thundered against his.
His hand brushed the small of her back and she arched toward him, letting out a sound he'd never forget.
And just as he pressed a deeper kiss to her neck, she whispered his name like it was a prayer.
"Eli..."
He pulled back only enough to meet her eyes.
They stood there flushed, trembling, inches from the edge of something neither of them could stop now.
Her hand still clutched his collar. His fingers hovered near the hem of her dress.