Connor Kavanagh had gotten used to missing you.
For a year, your relationship had existed through phone calls, blurry FaceTimes, voice notes, and countdowns. Every day was another crossed-out square on the calendar. Every goodbye at the end of a call felt a little heavier than the last.
The university campus buzzed around him as he walked across the quad with his backpack slung over one shoulder. Students laughed on the grass, music drifted from someone’s speaker, and the spring sun warmed the pavement beneath his feet.
He barely noticed any of it.
His girlfriend had texted him earlier that morning.
Good luck with your presentation today ❤️
That was it.
Nothing unusual.
Nothing suspicious.
Connor smiled to himself as he read it again while heading toward the library.
A familiar voice suddenly called his name.
“Connor!”
His head turned automatically.
His friend Liam was jogging toward him from across the courtyard.
“Your sister’s looking for you.”
Connor frowned.
“My sister?”
“Yeah. Said it was important.”
“What’s she doing here?”
Liam shrugged.
“No idea. She told me to fetch you.”
“Fetch me?” Connor let out an amused scoff as he pushed his chair back and stood.
He headed toward the fountain in the centre of campus, confused but not particularly concerned.
As he approached, he spotted his sister standing nearby.
She looked far too excited.
Immediately suspicious.
“What?” Connor asked.
“Nothing.”
“Why are you smiling like that?”
“I’m not.”
“You are.”
She bit her lip to stop herself from grinning.
Connor narrowed his eyes.
“You’re being weird.”
“Just turn around.”
“What?”
“Turn around.”
“Why?”
“Connor.”
He rolled his eyes.
Then he turned.
Everything stopped.
For a second, his brain simply refused to process what he was seeing.
Standing twenty feet away was his girlfriend.
The girlfriend who was supposed to be over three thousand miles away.
The girlfriend he hadn’t held in an entire year.
The girlfriend who had somehow managed to keep this secret from him.
You stood there with a nervous smile, your suitcase beside you.
Connor stared.
Once.
Twice.
Then his jaw actually dropped.
“Holy shite.”
Her eyes immediately filled with tears.
“Hi.”
His backpack hit the ground. He was moving before he even realized it.
People turned to look as Connor sprinted across the courtyard.
You barely had time to react before his big arms looped around your waist and lifted you clean off the ground.
“Oh my God!” A terrified squeak escaped you as the force of it almost sent me backwards.
“What are you doing here?”
“You weren’t supposed to know.”
“Obviously I didn’t know!”
His voice cracked slightly.
Neither of you cared.
A year of missed birthdays, missed holidays, missed movie nights, missed hugs, missed everything suddenly collapsed into that single moment.
Connor finally set you down, but only enough to cup your face in his hands as if he needed proof you were actually real.
“What the fuck.”
You let out a laugh.
“What are you doing here?”
“I got on a plane.”
“No.”
She laughed.
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Connor.”
“No.”
“I wanted to surprise you.”
“You did.”
His eyes never left hers.
A whole year of seeing you through screens hadn’t prepared him for how different it felt standing in front of you.
Just there.
“You…”
You bit back a smile.
“Hi.”
Connor looked genuinely speechless.
“You just texted me.”
“I know.”
“You said you were going to sleep.”
“I was.”
“You are literally six thousand miles away.”
“Apparently not.”
Connor stared for another second.
Then another.
“I missed you.”
The words came out quieter than he’d intended.