It was like trying to solve a puzzle where Jacob hid the last piece, (“that mf 🥰”) …forever pixelated…

Every time she thought she had a grasp on what was happening between them, Daniel would do or say something that tilted her world on its axis, leaving her breathless and bare.

Patience is a virtue I guess?

But hey, he wasn’t patient earlier, when he kept pressing the elevator button.

It ain’t gonna come any faster…

Oh that’s what she… damn, missed opportunity.

Then thunder cracked overhead like a whip, the sound so close and sharp that Juniper couldn’t help but flinch.

Her heart leaped, the primal fear of the storm mixing with the adrenaline secreting from her viscus.

They both turned toward the windows instinctively, the glass rattling in its frame as if it was demanding passage.

In the echo of thunder, their eyes found each other with the inevitability of magnets snapping together, and she felt suspended… the storm outside should have been what frightened her, but it was the quieter danger… this pull… that made her breath catch.

Daniel stood, his movements fluid and grounded, then he paused. “Your balcony…” he said, glancing toward it. “Would you mind if we… these storms are incredible to watch up close.”

“Come with me,” he added, his voice low and certain.

She found herself moving in a way that confused her… being navigated through her own space as if it had become foreign territory, as if she needed him to chart the course through the lines she paced thousands of times.

Each step she took felt inevitable, drawn along his path toward the balcony door, an invisible thread between them tightening with every breath she pulled in. She was already beside him before she understood why, her body deciding for her what her mind was just beginning to grasp.