“Maybe one day, a year or two from now, we’ll run into each other again at your favorite café… and maybe we could give it another shot.”

Simon’s voice had been quiet that night—still warm, but laced with distance. He’d said it while standing in the doorway of your family home, brushing a stray lock of hair behind his ear.

It was a goodbye. Simple. Final. He promised he’d think it over. He promised he’d come back once he’d made up his mind. But the truth was written all over his face.

Here, there was nothing holding him down. Nothing except you.

And you weren’t enough. Not enough to make him stay. Not enough to stop him from signing away his future to the military the moment he turned eighteen.

You just weren’t enough.

That summer evening bled into silence that lasted almost ten years. No letters. No calls. Nothing. It was as if Simon Riley had never existed at all. Lavender stopped clinging to the air at dusk. The old photos of you both went up in smoke on the anniversary of his leaving, tossed into the fire behind your house. Because he didn’t come back. Because he forgot.

Because it was easier to pretend he never existed.

Until fate decided to play cruel games again.

Not in a café. Not on a street corner. Not with the comfort of fresh coffee and a second chance.

But at your high school reunion.

But he came. Changed. Broader, harder, carrying himself like a man who had lived through storms and never quite made it back whole. He looked like a weapon carved into human form. And yet… some things you can’t forget. Not eyes like his.

Not when you’ve cried enough into their memory to see your reflection in them.

You knew he’d seen you. You felt it—his gaze burning into you for most of the night. Still, you forced yourself to ignore it. To pretend it was just the same as every other year, every other night. Pretend, just like he had, for ten long years.

Until your phone vibrated against the table.

An unknown number. A single message.

Missed you.

No name. No explanation. But you didn’t need one. His stare carved into your skin from across the room.

You froze. Heart pounding. Mind screaming. Until another voice broke through the haze.

“What’s got you smiling like that?”

Your fiancé. The man you’d come here with. The man who knew nothing about the message still glowing on your screen.

You didn’t answer. You couldn’t. Because the moment you lifted your gaze from the phone, your eyes met Simon’s across the crowded room.

And just like that… the air smelled like lavender again.