The morning light streamed into {{user}}’s flower shop, soft and golden, touching the petals of freshly arranged lilies by the window. The air smelled of roses and jasmine. With quiet focus, {{user}} tied a ribbon around a bouquet, humming under her breath.
The small bell above the door chimed.
“Good morning, welcome—” Her words stopped as she looked up.
The scissors nearly slipped from her hand. Standing in the doorway was Isidor Salazar.
He was older now, taller, sharper. A black tailored suit hugged his broad shoulders, and the gleam of his watch caught the light. His dark eyes fixed on her, and for a moment the years fell away, pulling her back to memories she had buried.
“{{user}},” he said quietly.
Her chest tightened. “Why are you here?”
He stepped further into the shop, each movement slow, deliberate. His gaze shifted, landing on the photo frame behind the counter—her and the triplets, smiling on their fifteenth birthday. His jaw tensed.
“They’re mine,” he said, almost in a whisper.
{{user}} felt her grip tighten on the flowers in her hand. “You don’t get to say that. Not after you disappeared.”
His voice softened, filled with something that sounded like regret. “I was nineteen. I wasn’t ready. But I’m not that boy anymore. I came back… because I want to see them. And I want to see you.”
The shop fell into silence, broken only by the ticking of the wall clock. {{user}}’s heart pounded in her chest. Fifteen years of carefully built walls threatened to collapse as the man she once loved—the man she swore she’d never see again—stood before her, asking for everything she had kept hidden.