Chapter 1 #3
Of course the man I had not seen in eight years, the man who belonged to a version of me that still believed almost-love was survivable, was now standing six feet from my apartment door with temporary housing and a consulting contract.
Because apparently the universe had moved on from subtlety and gone straight to arson.
Mia peered around my coat. "You're the new box man."
Sebastian blinked down at her, then his mouth twitched. "I've been called worse."
"Your box made sad noises yesterday."
"That was the coffee maker."
"It sounded hurt."
"It had a difficult flight."
Mia considered him with the solemn judgment of a child who had strong feelings about appliance trauma.
I did not have time for this.
Unfortunately, my nervous system had decided to notice everything about him anyway. The clean rain smell clinging to his skin. The rough warmth still lingering where his hands had caught my arms. The way he looked at Mia, not too familiar, not overly charming, just calm enough to give her room.
The elevator finally dinged.
7:38
Too late already.
The doors slid open with painful slowness while I stood there in the wreckage of a morning that had apparently decided to add unresolved romantic history to the itinerary.
Mia looked from the elevator to Sebastian to me. "Are we still going fast?"
"Yes," I said.
"No," my phone said, buzzing again in my pocket.
I yanked it out.
Dana from the office.
My first client had arrived early.
Of course.
My vision tunneled for one sharp second.
Traffic downtown. The school drop-off. My eight o'clock. The coffee on my sleeve. The stranger-who-wasn't-a-stranger standing next door with my past in his eyes.
Everything stacked itself inside my head so fast it became noise.
Sebastian glanced once at the elevator, once at Mia's flushed face, then back to me. "You need help."
The sentence should have irritated me. It did irritate me.
Mostly because it was true.
"I'm fine."
Mia made a small skeptical sound.
Traitor.
Sebastian's gaze dropped to my thumb. "You're bleeding."
"It's nothing."
"You say that about everything?"
The question landed softer than criticism.
Still annoying.
"Yes."
That earned the faintest breath of laughter from him, and the sound moved through me before I could stop it.
The second the elevator doors started to close, Sebastian reached out and caught them with one hand.
Not dramatic. Just useful.
Always useful, apparently.
"I can ride down," he said.
"I don't need an escort."
"I didn't say you did."
Mia looked up at him. "Can you carry my backpack? It has a cloud project and emotional shoes."
"Mia," I warned.
Sebastian looked at me first.
Not assuming. Waiting.
That steadiness hit me like muscle memory, like standing too close to something I used to want before life taught me better.
The elevator doors tried to close again against his hand. The hallway lights buzzed overhead. My phone buzzed in my palm. And for one disorienting second, I could feel the whole morning balancing on a choice I did not want to need.
"She can carry her backpack," I said.
Mia sighed like I had denied her basic labor rights.
Sebastian nodded once and stepped into the elevator, holding the door with his shoulder until we followed. Inside, the space shrank around us immediately.
Coffee stain drying on my sleeve. Sebastian warm and solid beside me. Mia tucked against my hip, peeking at him like he was a puzzle she had every intention of solving before breakfast.
"You're really next door?" I asked, because apparently I enjoyed pain.
"For six weeks."
Temporary. Of course.
That word should have made him safer.
It didn't.
The elevator jolted toward the lobby.
Mia tilted her head. "Are you good at school drop-off?"
Sebastian's eyes flicked to mine, and something careful passed through them.
"I'm good at getting people where they need to go."
My last rigid thread of control inside me snapped.
Not dramatically. Quietly.
The kind of fracture that happened from pressure, not impact.
"I can't do this today."
The words escaped before I could stop them. I froze immediately afterward because I didn't say things like that.
Ever.
Sebastian looked at me carefully.
No surprise. No pity. Just focus.
Then he spoke in the same calm voice he'd used since the second I crashed into him.
"I can take her," he said. "Just today."
My pulse stumbled. Everything inside me locked instantly.
No. Absolutely not.
Too much trust. Too much reliance. Too much room for disappointment. Too many old almosts standing too close to my present life.
But Mia looked up at exactly the wrong moment.
"Really?"
Hope bloomed across her face so fast it hurt to look at.
Sebastian's attention stayed on me, not her. Giving me the choice. Giving me the out.
Always calm. Always steady.
And standing there in the elevator with sirens echoing outside and my carefully controlled morning collapsing around me, I realized something terrifying.
I could not fix this alone.
And maybe that should have been the terrifying part.
But it wasn't.
The terrifying part was that Sebastian Hayes was standing beside me, steady as a promise I knew better than to trust, and some reckless, exhausted part of me wanted to hand him the pieces anyway.