The rain tapped gently against the glass windows of Marrow Café, the small, candlelit coffee shop tucked away in a crooked side street. Inside, the scent of cinnamon and roasted beans hung in the air. Evelyn, a bookshop owner with ink-stained fingertips, sat at her usual corner table, a half-finished sketch of a raven scribbled in her notebook. She wasn’t waiting for anyone, but she always ordered two cups of tea—out of habit, or perhaps hope. The door creaked open, the bell jingling softly. A man in a dark green coat stepped in, shaking the rain from his shoulders. His name was Rowan, though Evelyn didn’t know that yet. What she did notice was the way he glanced around the café as if he had been searching for it all his life. When his eyes landed on the empty chair at her table, he gave a small, uncertain smile. “Is this seat taken?” he asked. Evelyn hesitated, her pencil hovering over the page. She looked at the untouched second cup of tea in front of her and finally pushed it toward him. “Not anymore,” she said.