The bakery was warm with the scent of cinnamon and fresh bread, the kind of place that made you forget the world outside. Lila Grace stepped in, her curls cascading down her back like a silk curtain, her presence commanding without trying. She was two weeks into her new title—Barrister Lila Grace—and still getting used to the weight of it.
She just wanted a quiet morning. A croissant. Maybe a moment to breathe.
Instead, she got him.
Luca Elion.
He was perched at a corner table with two others—Jake, who looked like he regretted every life choice that led him here, and Kate, who sat apart, arms crossed, eyes cold. Luca, though, was the loud one. The funny one. The one who couldn't stop teasing Jake loud enough for the whole bakery to hear.
Lila watched for a moment. Then another. Then she stepped forward.
"You know," she said, voice calm but cutting, "if your idea of confidence is humiliating your friend in public, maybe you're not as charming as you think."
Luca turned, caught off guard. His eyes landed on her—on the way she stood, on the way her natural hair framed her face like a crown—and for a second, he forgot to speak.
Then he smiled. "Didn't realize I was being reviewed."
"You weren't," she said, brushing past him. "But mediocrity tends to announce itself."
The silence that followed was sharp enough to slice through the air.
Jake blinked. Kate scoffed. Luca's smile faltered—just for a second.
And that was it.
He didn't know her name. She didn't know his. But in that moment, something shifted. Not attraction. Not yet.
Just heat.
And from that day on, every time they crossed paths, it sparked.
Not love.
Not yet.
Just fire.
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