Fiona stared at her plate.
The risotto had gone cold, the arborio rice congealing around the edges, flecks of asparagus and parmesan now looking more like regret than comfort. The candle between them flickered, throwing soft gold across the table, but it couldn't reach the shadows under her eyes or the ones pooling inside her chest.
Tears slipped free again slow at first, then faster, carving silent tracks down her cheeks. She wiped them quickly with the back of her hand, embarrassed, angry at herself for falling apart in front of someone who hadn't seen her in years.
Caleb watched her.
He didn't speak right away.
He just watched quiet, steady, the way he used to watch her in senior year when she'd read her poems out loud in English Lit and pretended she didn't notice him staring. Back then he'd thought she was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. Now… now she looked like a woman who'd been carrying the weight of the world for too long, and it was finally crushing her.
