"I sent the text. And now I can't breathe."— Elias
Now I know what I want. You.
Elias
It took me two days to send the text.
I typed it at least twenty times.
Then deleted it twenty-one.
I don't get nervous.
Not when it matters. Not in the field. Not when lives are on the line.
But this?
This was Liana.
And that made everything different.
Eventually, I settled on this:
hey
you free this weekend?
thought we could grab dinner.
just the two of us.
I stared at it for five minutes.
Then hit send.
No emoji. No awkward punctuation. Just... a question.
I put the phone down and went to the kitchen.
Made coffee I didn't drink.
Stared at the wall like it had answers.
The reply came twenty minutes later.
dinner sounds nice
saturday?
I didn't smile.
Not really.
But something in my chest eased.
Like a wire finally stopped pulling tight.
Saturday
I got there early.
Too early.
The restaurant wasn't fancy. Quiet. No crowds.
Somewhere you could talk without raising your voice.
I picked a table near the window.
Then I waited.
And when the door opened—
I knew.
Not because of the sound.
But because I felt her before I saw her.
She walked in wearing a soft, slate-blue dress. Nothing flashy. Just... her.
Hair pulled back. Lips tinted. Eyes scanning until they landed on me.
And she smiled.
Small. Nervous. Real.
I stood up without thinking.
She sat across from me like this was normal. Like we'd done it a hundred times before.
But I could see it in the way she tucked her hands into her lap.
The way she didn't know where to look.
She was trying to hide it.
But she was nervous too.
Good.
I didn't want to be the only one.
We ordered food.
Talked about nothing—classes, Alex, some kid she tutored online who thought "February" was a dinosaur.
She laughed when she told me that.
And I didn't realize how much I missed the sound until I heard it again.
Then—
The food came. And with it, the silence.
The kind where you both know what's not being said.
I set my fork down.
Looked at her.
Really looked.
"Liana," I said quietly.
She stopped moving.
"Yeah?"
I paused.
This was the part where I was supposed to say something smooth. Honest. Brave.
But all I managed was:
"I like spending time with you."
Her lips parted. "Me too."
A beat.
Then another.
"I think about you," I said. "More than I should."
She didn't look away.
She just said:
"I like it when you hold me."
My breath caught.
Not because of the words.
But because of the way she said them.
Soft.
Scared.
But sure.
And in that moment, something broke loose in me.
All the rules. All the restraint.
Everything I'd been holding back for too long.
I didn't touch her.
Not yet.
But I leaned in.
Close enough to feel her breath.
And said:
"Say that again."
She blinked. Cheeks flushed.
Then whispered—
"I like it when you hold me."
I closed my eyes.
Just for a second.
Because that was the sound I'd been waiting for.
And I didn't even know it until now.
💬 Was this a date? Or the beginning of something more?
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