She asked casually one evening, “Did you pay for something unusual this month?” He paused, just long enough. “Just sorting a few things,” he said, waving it away. The vagueness unsettled her now. Sorting what? For whom? The dismissal had not felt absentminded, and it stayed with her long after the conversation ended.
They had met young, through friends, without expectation or pressure. It was casual at first, a pleasant introduction that felt unimportant. Neither imagined permanence. They spoke easily, laughed without effort, and parted, assuming it would be temporary, unaware that something quiet had already begun forming between them.