Elise's POV
That afternoon, the air in my apartment felt lazy and slow. The curtains swayed lightly from the summer breeze seeping through the half-open window. Mason sat on the floor beside my coffee table, lazily flipping through one of my sketchbooks while I prepared tea in the kitchen.
We hadn't planned anything special—just another quiet day together. The kind that made me forget, at least for a few hours, that what we were doing wasn't supposed to happen.
I carried two mugs to the table and set one beside him.
"Thanks," he said softly, his voice unusually calm. He didn't look at me right away, just kept staring at the sketchbook in his lap as if lost in thought.
"What's got you so serious all of a sudden?" I asked, settling down beside him.
He chuckled faintly, shaking his head. "Nothing. I just… remembered something."
I tilted my head. "Remembered what?"
He hesitated, tracing his finger slowly along one of the pencil lines on the page before speaking. "My ex." He said it like it was a word he hadn't used in years. "I don't really talk about her much."
Something in his tone made me pause. "You don't have to if you're not comfortable," I said gently.
He gave a small smile but continued anyway. "No, it's fine. I kind of want to."
Mason's POV
I hadn't planned to bring it up. Maybe it was the calm in her apartment, or the way she listened to everything I said like it mattered. Whatever it was, the words came out on their own.
"She was my neighbor," I began, leaning back against the couch. "We grew up on the same street. Her name was Allie."
Elise stayed quiet, her expression soft and attentive.
"I think I fell for her before I even knew what love really was. We used to ride our bikes to the lake every weekend, steal popsicles from her dad's freezer, stuff like that. It was easy back then. And one summer—she just told me she liked me too."
He laughed quietly, a wistful sound. "We were kids. We thought forever meant next month."
Elise smiled faintly, but I could see the hint of sadness in her eyes.
"For a while, it was perfect," I continued. "She was fun, spontaneous… a little reckless. I guess I liked that. However, as we grew older, things changed. She did. Or maybe I just stopped being exciting enough."
His gaze dropped to the cup of tea, untouched on the table.
"One day, I found out she was seeing someone else. A guy from another school. I didn't catch her in the act or anything dramatic like that—I just… knew. The messages on her phone, the way she suddenly stopped answering mine. I asked her about it, and she didn't even deny it."
There was a pause.
"When I walked away that night, I swore I'd never let myself look at anyone who reminded me of her again. Especially those girls who thought love was just something you tried on and threw away later."
Elise's hands tightened around her mug, her knuckles pale against the ceramic.
"So yeah," I finished, forcing a smile, "maybe that whole thing messed me up a little. After Allie, I didn't bother with anyone seriously. I was just… done. Until, well—" his eyes flicked to her briefly, "I met you."
Elise's POV
The room fell silent. His story hovered in the air, heavy and sincere. I watched him, my chest aching with emotion I couldn't name. This was the side of Mason most people never saw—the quiet truth beneath his confidence, the boy still picking at scars he pretended healed long ago.
But while he spoke, my heart sank—not because of his story, but because of the sudden realization sneaking into my thoughts.
I hadn't told him.
There were so many things he didn't know about me—details I'd brushed aside, thinking they didn't matter. After all, what we had wasn't supposed to be serious. It wasn't supposed to matter. It started as something fleeting, complicated, impossible.
But hearing him talk about betrayal, about the pain of being lied to, twisted something deep inside me.
He hated it when people hid the truth. And here I was, the worst kind of hypocrite.
I stared at the carpet, my thoughts starting to race. Should I tell him? It wasn't like I owed him anything… at least, that's what I had always told myself. But the longer we stayed like this—the closer he leaned, the softer he looked at me—the more my guilt scraped away at my chest.
"Mason," I said quietly, my voice more fragile than I wanted it to be.
He looked up immediately. "Yeah?"
"There's something I should tell you."
He sat up straighter, the concern visible in his expression. "What is it?"
I hesitated—my throat dry, my hands cold. But before I could take a breath to speak, his phone rang, slicing through the fragile tension like a blade.
Mason's POV
I pulled my phone from my pocket and saw the name flashing on the screen. "It's Luke," I said apologetically. "He's been calling me for ten minutes. It might be important."
Elise gave a shaky nod. "Go ahead."
I stepped toward the window and answered. "What's up?"
Luke's voice came through the line, rushed and half-panicked about some last-minute art project. I laughed it off, promised I'd meet him soon to help figure it out. When I hung up and turned back to Elise, she was staring absently at her teacup, lost in thought.
"Sorry about that," I said, walking toward her.
"It's alright." Her smile looked forced, almost guilty.
I reached out, brushing a loose strand of hair behind her ear before leaning down to kiss her. "We'll talk later, okay?"
She nodded again, her eyes not meeting mine.
"I'll call you tonight," I added, grabbing my jacket.
"Okay," she whispered.
I pressed one last quick kiss to her lips. "See you."
And with that, I stepped out into the fading light, the door closing softly behind me.
Elise's POV
The silence that filled the apartment after he left felt deafening.
I sat still for what felt like forever, listening to the faint hum of the city outside. My chest tightened with unease, with the weight of words I didn't say.
That was when my phone rang.
The sound jolted me, sharp and startling. I reached for it on instinct—but when I saw the caller ID, my stomach dropped.
I froze.
For a second, I thought about ignoring it. But my thumb moved on its own, pressing "accept."
"Hello?" My voice came out smaller than I wanted.
"Elise." The voice on the line was warm, familiar.
Part of me wanted to smile. Another part gripped the edge of the table until my knuckles ached.
"It's been a while," the caller said. "I'll be coming to visit you tomorrow. I can't wait to see you."
My heart skipped violently in my chest. For a beat, I couldn't speak.
"That's… that's great," I managed to say, though my voice trembled slightly.
After a few minutes of conversation—brief, polite, and painfully normal—the call ended.
The moment the line went silent, my excitement twisted into panic. I sat motionless, staring at the floor as dread crept up my spine.
He was coming.
Tomorrow.
And I had no idea how I was going to keep these two worlds from colliding.