The bell over the door jingled when you walked into Donuts, sunlight cutting in behind you. Dud was already there, hunched over his usual booth with a fresh donut that had gone cold an hour ago. He was halfway through a story to Alice behind the counter when he caught sight of you.

And just like that, the whole place shifted.

You weren’t doing anything special—just brushing hair out of your face as you studied the menu—but Dud felt his chest hitch, like the air had gotten thicker. It wasn’t just that you were beautiful. It was that you looked like someone he’d been waiting for without even knowing it.

He stared maybe a beat too long, his goofy grin creeping in before he could stop it. The world outside kept moving—traffic rolling down the street, the faint hum of the fryer in back—but for Dud, it all went muffled.

“Hey, man,” Alice said, snapping him out of it. “You good?”

Dud blinked, laughed a little to himself. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m good.” He watched you pay, your voice easy, warm, and he thought, Okay. The universe just did something.

When you turned, coffee in hand, Dud sat up straighter, fumbling like he might say something. But all he managed was that wide, earnest smile of his—the one that made people feel like maybe life wasn’t as heavy as it seemed.