It had been two days since Ayaanvi last saw Reyan.
Two days since his effortless charm had taken up permanent residence in her mind, echoing like an unfinished sentence she couldn’t stop rereading. She had told herself that the effect would fade—that his smile would blur into the crowd of faces she saw every day on campus. But as she walked through the gates of the university that morning, the sunlight cutting golden through the trees, her eyes betrayed her before her mind could protest.

Every face she saw was a disappointment.
Because none of them were his.