Atasha's POV
I couldn't stop crying.
Luna's embrace felt like home. Like the blanket I didn't know I needed, like the diary I'd left half-written in a forgotten drawer. We stood in the middle of the café, her hands clutching mine as if afraid I'd disappear again. I didn't care who stared. This moment was ours.
"I thought I'd lost you," I whispered, my voice barely steady.
She smiled through her own tears. "I thought you forgot me."
I laughed, then sobbed again. "Never. Not even for a second."
We sat across from each other, a cup of mint tea between us, and spoke like no time had passed. Luna updated me on her chaotic family, the wild jobs she juggled, the new hobbies she picked up. I told her about Milan, about the night shifts at the hospital, the sketches on my apartment walls, the loneliness I'd stitched into poetry.
And through it all, I kept glancing at the door—half-expecting him.
Antonio.
Luna reached across the table, squeezing my hand. "He told me about you once," she said gently, "before he even knew your name. Said you reminded his mother of fireflies."
I froze. A whisper of his voice echoed in my mind—"I like how you glow when you talk about things you love."
That idiot. That beautiful, quiet, thoughtful idiot.
My heart, already full, overflowed.
After Luna left with a warm promise to meet again soon, I stayed behind in the café, scanning every face that walked in, hoping one of them would be his. Antonio. He'd remembered Luna and knew how much she meant to me.
I grabbed my phone and stared at the screen, tempted to call. But I stopped myself.
No. He planned all this quietly. Maybe he wanted it to be just mine, a gift without his name stitched across it. But still… I needed to see him. To thank him. To hold his face in my hands and tell him what it meant.
So I left the café and walked toward the plaza. No sign. I even peeked into the small bookstore we sometimes sat in after coffee—empty.
I called his name softly to myself as if it would summon him from thin air.
Where was he?
My eyes scanned the street, the corners, the park nearby where kids laughed and chased each other. But the one face I longed to see was nowhere.
The wind played with my hair as I stood still, searching.
And in that moment, I realized something.
He didn't need to be in front of me to make my heart race.
He already lived in every gentle thought, in every tender surprise, in every part of my life he'd managed to weave himself into without asking anything in return.
But I still needed to find him.
I needed to tell him he wasn't just my past… he was the quiet, patient presence that made me want a future.
Antonio's POV
I watched her from across the street, leaning silently against the lamppost, half-shadowed by the rustling branches above. The moment Luna walked away, Atasha—no, Selene—stepped out of the café, eyes wandering, scanning the street like she was chasing a feeling.
A feeling I desperately wanted to be.
She looked radiant, a little wind-tousled, a little confused, and absolutely beautiful. Her gaze moved from the plaza to the bookstore window, to the bench by the fountain… everywhere I'd hoped she'd look. She was searching for me, and God, that did something to my chest.
But I hesitated.
I wasn't sure if showing up now would ruin the quiet joy she'd just felt reuniting with Luna. This day was hers. Her moment. I didn't want to take the light away from it—not yet.
And still, when she stopped in the middle of the square, wrapped in silence, whispering something I couldn't hear… I stepped forward. Just a single step.
But then she turned around.
And her face—hopeful, soft, like she was willing me to be there—froze me in place.
I wanted to run to her, take her hand, press her forehead to mine and whisper how much I Love her—every breath, every second. But something held me back. Maybe fear. Maybe the wish to give her more time to breathe.
So instead, I smiled faintly, even though she couldn't see it from where I stood.
"Just a few more minutes, Selene," I whispered under my breath. "Let the day be yours. I'll come back into your light when you're ready to let me stay in it."