It had only been a few months. But it felt like years.

Leaving the Outer Banks hadn’t been your choice. Family. Chaos. The kind of reasons you don’t explain, just survive. Still— every day apart from him had felt like losing little pieces of yourself.

Now you were finally back. Same streets. Same salty air. Same boy waiting at the edge of the driveway with that crooked smile you used to call home.

He hugged you like nothing had changed. Kissed you like he meant it. But your gut told you something different. Something was… off.

He gave you the feeling everything was okay, he touched you the same way. Laughed at your jokes. Played your favorite songs.

But late at night, your old room didn’t feel like yours anymore. Still, you lay beside him in the dark, his arm around your waist like before— like nothing had happened.

But when you reached into the nightstand drawer to grab your charger, your fingers brushed against something unfamiliar.

A perfume bottle. Not yours. Not even close.

You froze. Held it up to the light. You stared at it. The soft glass. The golden cap. It smelled sweet, floral, and loud— everything you weren’t.

You sat still for a moment, the silence stretching so tight it hurt. Maybe there was an explanation. Maybe it was nothing. But when you reached further in— and your fingers pulled out the edge of a photograph— your breath hitched.

Polaroids. Smiling. His hand on her thigh. Her head on his shoulder. Another life you weren’t part of.

And for a second, you didn’t cry. You didn’t scream. You just stared at them, like they might rearrange themselves into something less cruel.

Behind you, Rafe shifted in his sleep.

And that’s when it hit you.

Maybe he wasn’t waiting for you at all. Maybe he’d just been hoping you wouldn’t look too close.