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FunTranscript
00:00The sun was too bright for grief.
00:02It fell across the marble steps of the chapel like it hadn't read the room,
00:05lighting every face that wanted to hide.
00:08Black clothes gleamed instead of absorbing sorrow.
00:11Sunglasses reflected instead of protecting.
00:13I stood at the top step, my hand on the railing,
00:16pretending not to notice how many people still looked at me when they thought they shouldn't.
00:20I was the ex-wife.
00:23The mistake.
00:24The ghost that didn't belong at the funeral.
00:26But I came anyway.
00:28He'd been my husband once.
00:30My mistake.
00:31My lesson.
00:32My history.
00:33We hadn't spoken in years.
00:35But grief isn't rational.
00:37It's muscle memory.
00:38My body brought me here before my mind could argue.
00:41The service ended before I realized how long I'd been holding my breath.
00:45When I turned to leave, that's when I saw him.
00:48Standing near the sunlight pouring through the doorway.
00:51Tall, black shirt unbuttoned at the collar.
00:54Sleeves rolled to his forearms.
00:57His hair caught the light, golden at the edges.
00:59Eyes too direct for someone so young.
01:02He looked at me like he knew exactly who I was.
01:05I told myself not to stare.
01:08I'd met him years ago.
01:10Briefly.
01:11At some family dinner when he was still in college.
01:14Awkward and polite.
01:15But the man standing before me wasn't that boy.
01:18He had the posture of someone who'd learned his own name.
01:21Who'd stopped asking for permission.
01:24Mrs. Vale.
01:25He said softly.
01:26His voice low and rough at the edges.
01:29I didn't think you'd come.
01:31It's just Ava now.
01:32I said.
01:33Keeping my tone even.
01:35And I had to.
01:36Whatever he was.
01:37He mattered once.
01:39He nodded.
01:40His gaze lingering a second too long.
01:42You look...
01:43Different.
01:43I smiled faintly.
01:45Time does that.
01:45He hesitated, hands in his pockets.
01:48Still, he said, you make everyone else fade a little.
01:53There it was.
01:55The kind of line that should have sounded rehearsed.
01:57But didn't.
01:59It came out like a confession he hadn't meant to say aloud.
02:03The silence that followed was soft and electric.
02:07Outside.
02:08The city was alive.
02:10Car doors.
02:11Voices.
02:12The hum of life continuing as if no one had died.
02:14Sunlight reflected off the glass buildings beyond the cemetery gates.
02:19I needed air, motion, distance.
02:21But he walked beside me as if it was decided.
02:24We stopped near a row of parked cars.
02:26The wind teasing the hem of my dress.
02:29Are you heading somewhere?
02:30He asked.
02:31Home, I said.
02:33Eventually.
02:34He tilted his head, studying me.
02:36You look like someone who doesn't go home right away.
02:39Someone who takes the long way just to think.
02:41The observation was too sharp.
02:43Too intimate.
02:44Do you always analyze people you barely know?
02:47He smiled.
02:48Only the ones I've been curious about for a long time.
02:51I should have laughed.
02:53I didn't.
02:54His honesty disarmed me.
02:56I could feel the distance between us.
02:59A few feet of sunlight and air.
03:01But it might as well have been the space between restraint and ruin.
03:04He was standing close enough that I caught the faint scent of his cologne.
03:08The warmth of his skin.
03:10I'm sorry about your uncle, I said finally, needing to say something neutral.
03:16He nodded.
03:18He used to talk about you, you know.
03:20I turned toward him.
03:22Oh, not much, he said.
03:23Just that you were the only one who ever really challenged him.
03:26That's one way to put it, I said, glancing down.
03:31We were good at fighting.
03:33Not so good at stopping.
03:34He laughed quietly.
03:36The sound was too young.
03:37Too alive for the setting.
03:39He said you were the only person who didn't let him win.
03:41I liked that.
03:42His words shouldn't have mattered.
03:44But they did.
03:45The air felt heavier, not with grief, but with something else.
03:51Awareness.
03:52I saw it in his posture.
03:54In the way his hand brushed his shirt cuff.
03:56In the way his eyes didn't move away when they should have.
03:59I should go, I said.
04:02Thank you for saying that.
04:04Of course, he said.
04:06But he didn't step back.
04:07He stayed right there.
04:09Sunlight cutting across his jaw.
04:11Eyes unreadable.
04:12You were different then, he said.
04:15At that dinner, you looked untouchable.
04:18And now, he hesitated.
04:20Now you look real.
04:22The words sank under my skin like warmth after cold.
04:25I wasn't sure what scared me more.
04:27That he meant it.
04:28Or that I liked hearing it.
04:30I turned, taking a step away.
04:34Goodbye, Ethan.
04:35He didn't move.
04:36You remembered my name.
04:38Of course I had.
04:40I didn't look back as I walked toward my car.
04:42But I could feel his eyes on me.
04:44Like sunlight that refused to dim.
04:47Every step felt deliberate, measured.
04:50The click of my heels against the pavement became the only sound I trusted.
04:54I sat in the driver's seat,
04:56exhaled,
04:57and stared ahead for a long moment.
05:00The reflection in the rearview mirror showed a woman I didn't entirely recognize.
05:03Calm, composed, but shaken beneath it all.
05:08And then, a soft knock on my window.
05:12He stood there again.
05:14Sorry, he said when I lowered the glass.
05:17I just wanted to make sure you were okay.
05:20I'm fine.
05:21I lied.
05:22He leaned down, his face level with mine, eyes steady.
05:27You don't look fine.
05:29There was something in the way he said it.
05:31Not pity, not curiosity, but certainty.
05:33As if he saw the truth through the mask I'd spent years perfecting.
05:39I didn't know what to say, so I said nothing.
05:42He glanced at the passenger seat.
05:44Can I walk you to your car next time instead?
05:47Next time?
05:49He smiled just barely.
05:50If you ever feel like talking, or not talking, I'd like to see you again.
05:55The way he said it, not as a request, but a quiet statement,
06:00unsettled me more than it should have.
06:02Ethan, I started.
06:04He stepped back, hands in his pockets again.
06:07Think about it, he said.
06:09You know where to find me.
06:11Then he turned and walked away,
06:13the sunlight following him across the pavement.
06:16I sat there long after he'd gone,
06:18fingers tightening around the steering wheel.
06:22My heart was steady,
06:23but my breath wasn't.
06:25Some part of me wanted to dismiss it.
06:28The moment, the spark,
06:30the foolishness of it all.
06:32But as I drove away,
06:34his words replayed themselves like an echo I couldn't silence.
06:37You make everyone else fade a little.
06:39And for the first time in years,
06:41I didn't feel like a ghost.
06:45It had been a week.
06:46A week of pretending that sunlight didn't remind me of his voice,
06:50or that the quiet didn't sound like the space between our sentences.
06:55I told myself that what happened outside the chapel was just a byproduct of grief,
07:00proximity and emotion blurring lines.
07:03I'd forgotten how to feel, that was all.
07:05But even as I thought it,
07:07I knew I was lying.
07:08He texted once.
07:10A simple,
07:11You left your scarf in the car park.
07:13Want me to drop it off?
07:14I hadn't left anything behind.
07:16I knew that immediately.
07:17It was an excuse,
07:19one I could have ignored.
07:20But I didn't.
07:21I replied,
07:23I'll come get it.
07:24We met in the afternoon,
07:26at a quiet café tucked between glass buildings and trees that filtered sunlight onto the pavement.
07:31I wore white,
07:32not black.
07:33And for the first time in years,
07:36I noticed how the color made me feel alive.
07:39He was already there,
07:41sitting at an outdoor table,
07:43sleeves rolled up,
07:45black shirt open at the throat.
07:47The sunlight caught in his hair turned his skin golden.
07:50When he looked up and saw me,
07:51he smiled,
07:53not politely,
07:54not cautiously,
07:55just
07:55like he'd been waiting.
07:58You found it,
07:59I said,
07:59sliding into the chair opposite him.
08:02He placed the scarf on the table.
08:04My scarf,
08:05somehow real,
08:06though I didn't remember leaving it.
08:09I told you I did.
08:10You also told me I looked fine when I didn't,
08:12I said.
08:13He grinned.
08:14I'm a good liar when I care about someone's peace.
08:17That word,
08:18care,
08:19made me still.
08:20I picked up the cup the waiter brought me,
08:22just to have something to hold.
08:24The cafe was alive with quiet city noise,
08:27laughter,
08:28clinking cups,
08:29the hum of midday traffic.
08:32Everything felt too vivid.
08:33I could smell the coffee,
08:35the faint citrus of his cologne,
08:37the sunlight on concrete.
08:39How are you?
08:40He asked.
08:41I've been better,
08:41I said,
08:42and worse.
08:43He leaned forward,
08:44elbows on the table.
08:45You always talk like that?
08:47Like what?
08:48Like every answer is a riddle you dare people to solve.
08:52I smiled faintly.
08:54Maybe I just don't owe anyone simple answers anymore.
08:57He nodded,
08:58slow.
08:59Maybe that's what I like about you.
09:01The space between us hummed again.
09:04Every movement felt significant.
09:06The way his fingers tapped against the table.
09:09The way my wrist brushed his as I reached for my cup.
09:12The sunlight turned the moment into something almost cinematic,
09:16too beautiful to belong to reality.
09:17I thought about you,
09:20he said quietly.
09:22I froze,
09:23the words unexpected.
09:26At the funeral?
09:27I asked.
09:28He shook his head.
09:29After.
09:30I kept wondering what it would take for you to stop pretending you're untouchable.
09:34My throat tightened.
09:36You're assuming I am.
09:38He met my gaze unflinching.
09:40You hold yourself like someone who's been disappointed too many times and refuses to show it again.
09:45I looked away.
09:47That's very poetic for someone your age,
09:49he smiled,
09:50but there was no humor in it.
09:52You say that like it's supposed to mean something.
09:55Age.
09:56I didn't answer.
09:57I couldn't.
09:58The conversation dissolved into silence,
10:02the kind that was too alive to be comfortable.
10:04I felt his eyes on me,
10:06patient and knowing,
10:08as if he could wait forever for the truth I wouldn't give.
10:11When we finally stood to leave,
10:13he walked beside me down the sunlit street.
10:16The city glimmered around us,
10:18storefronts reflecting gold,
10:20the faint scent of jasmine from a passing breeze.
10:23Do you always take everything so seriously?
10:26He asked.
10:27Do you always take nothing seriously enough?
10:29He laughed under his breath.
10:31Touché.
10:32We reached the corner,
10:34and I should have said goodbye.
10:36Instead, I hesitated.
10:38The moment stretched.
10:39Sunlight catching the side of his face,
10:41the edge of his shirt fluttering in the breeze.
10:44He stepped closer.
10:46You don't have to keep pretending you don't feel this,
10:49he said quietly.
10:50This?
10:52This pull.
10:53The one you keep trying to rationalize.
10:56I met his gaze.
10:57Steady now.
10:58It's not rational.
10:59That's the problem.
11:01He took another step closer,
11:02his voice low.
11:04Then maybe stop thinking for a minute.
11:06The world around us blurred.
11:09Sound.
11:10Motion.
11:11Everything.
11:12Until it was just him.
11:14Sunlight.
11:15Breath.
11:16His hand brushed mine.
11:18Light.
11:19Accidental.
11:20Intentional all at once.
11:23Every nerve in my body felt like it remembered something it shouldn't.
11:27I should go.
11:28I whispered.
11:30I know.
11:32He said.
11:33But he didn't move.
11:35Neither did I.
11:37When I finally stepped back,
11:38it felt like pulling free from gravity.
11:41I walked away without looking over my shoulder.
11:44But I knew.
11:45Absolutely knew.
11:46He was still standing there,
11:48watching me leave.
11:49That night,
11:51I couldn't sleep.
11:52Every thought circled back to the way he'd looked at me.
11:55Not with hunger.
11:57But with understanding.
11:59That was what unnerved me most.
12:01It wasn't about attraction.
12:03It was recognition.
12:04A few days later,
12:05he texted again.
12:06I'm at the gallery.
12:08The one you used to curate.
12:09Thought you might want to see what they've done with it.
12:12I shouldn't have gone.
12:13I told myself I wouldn't.
12:15And yet,
12:16by late afternoon,
12:17I was there.
12:19The sunlight through the tall windows flooded everything with gold.
12:23The paintings glowed.
12:25The marble floors mirrored every step.
12:27He stood in the center of the main hall,
12:30hands in his pockets.
12:31That same black shirt catching the light.
12:34You came,
12:35he said.
12:36I shouldn't have.
12:38But you did.
12:40Something in his voice.
12:42Quiet pride.
12:44Quiet relief.
12:45Made me want to smile and scream at once.
12:47We walked through the gallery in silence.
12:52Every sound echoed.
12:53The click of my heels.
12:54The soft hum of the air conditioner.
12:56The faint rhythm of his steps behind me.
12:59When I stopped in front of a painting.
13:01Abstract swirls of color,
13:02light and shadow.
13:04He stopped beside me.
13:05What do you see?
13:06He asked.
13:07Chaos, I said.
13:08But beautiful chaos.
13:10He studied me instead of the painting.
13:12That sounds like you.
13:14I turned toward him,
13:16ready to deflect.
13:17But the words died in my throat.
13:19He was standing close.
13:21Too close.
13:22And there was nothing casual about it.
13:25His breath brushed my cheek when he spoke.
13:28I don't think I ever stopped being curious about you.
13:31My heart beat once, hard.
13:33You barely knew me.
13:34He smiled faintly.
13:35Sometimes you only need a moment to know you'll remember someone.
13:38It was ridiculous.
13:40It was dangerous.
13:41It was real.
13:42I should have stepped back.
13:43I didn't.
13:44The air between us changed,
13:46heavier, slower.
13:47He didn't touch me,
13:48not really,
13:49but the nearness felt like contact.
13:51His voice dropped,
13:52softer now.
13:54You can tell me to stop.
13:57I don't think you're doing anything.
13:59I whispered.
14:00He smiled.
14:01He smiled,
14:02his eyes searching mine.
14:04Not yet.
14:04And then,
14:05and then mercifully,
14:06he did nothing.
14:07He didn't reach for me.
14:08He didn't close the distance.
14:10He just stood there,
14:12letting the tension breathe,
14:14letting me feel everything I'd tried not to.
14:16After a long silence,
14:18I exhaled.
14:20You're too young to understand what this is.
14:23He looked at me like he was memorizing the shape of the words.
14:26Maybe I'm too young to be afraid of it.
14:28The honesty broke something in me.
14:31For a long time,
14:33I'd been the one in control.
14:35In boardrooms,
14:36relationships,
14:37everything.
14:38But in that gallery,
14:40under the golden afternoon light,
14:42I realized control had never been strength.
14:44It was armor.
14:46And for the first time,
14:47I didn't want to wear it.
14:49When I finally spoke,
14:51my voice was barely above a breath.
14:53Ethan,
14:54you should go.
14:55He nodded,
14:56eyes soft,
14:57unreadable.
14:58If that's what you really want.
15:00It wasn't.
15:02But I let him believe it.
15:04When he left,
15:04the gallery felt too large,
15:06too quiet.
15:07The sunlight on the marble shimmered,
15:09and for a moment,
15:11I stood there,
15:12alone,
15:13but trembling with the awareness
15:14that something inside me had already shifted.
15:17It wasn't surrender.
15:20Not yet,
15:21but it was the beginning of it.
15:22The days that followed felt quieter,
15:27but not peaceful.
15:30Silence had texture now.
15:32It reminded me of sunlight pressing through blinds,
15:36of messages left unsent,
15:38of words I'd swallowed before they reached the air.
15:41I told myself distance was strength,
15:44that I'd done the right thing by letting him go
15:46before anything truly began.
15:48But strength doesn't ache like this.
15:50A week passed.
15:53Then another.
15:55Everywhere I went,
15:57something pulled me back to that gallery.
15:59To him.
16:00To the way the sunlight touched his face when he said,
16:04Maybe I'm too young to be afraid of it.
16:06I hadn't.
16:09Realized how much of my life had been about fear.
16:12Fear of repeating mistakes.
16:13Fear of being seen too closely.
16:16Fear of wanting something that might not last.
16:18But he'd looked at me like I wasn't a mistake.
16:21Like I was alive.
16:22It was Saturday afternoon when I saw him again.
16:27I was standing at a bookstall on a sunlit boulevard,
16:30flipping through an old photography collection.
16:33I felt it before I saw it.
16:35That quiet awareness.
16:37Like gravity shifting.
16:39Still avoiding me?
16:41He said, voice low, amused.
16:43I turned, and there he was.
16:47Black shirt again, sleeves casually rolled, the top button open.
16:52The sunlight caught in his hair and reflected off his sunglasses.
16:56He looked impossibly self-assured,
16:58but there was warmth in his expression.
16:59I wasn't avoiding you, I said.
17:03Just making sure the world didn't stop turning.
17:07Did it?
17:09Maybe a little.
17:11He smiled, the kind that doesn't ask for forgiveness.
17:15Only understanding.
17:17Then let's fix that.
17:19Before I could respond,
17:21he took the book from my hand and glanced at it.
17:24You always read things that hurt.
17:27It's called taste, I said.
17:30It's called punishment.
17:32The quiet between us deepened.
17:35Not uncomfortable.
17:36Just full.
17:38We walked together down the boulevard,
17:40sunlight spilling between the buildings,
17:43the world golden and wide around us.
17:45He talked about ordinary things.
17:48His work, the city,
17:49the places he wanted to see.
17:51I listened,
17:53half aware of the way his hand brushed mine every so often,
17:56as if by accident.
17:57When we reached the edge of a small park,
18:00he stopped.
18:02Can we sit for a minute?
18:04We found a bench under the trees.
18:07The leaves filtered the light into gold and green,
18:09and for a moment,
18:11it felt like time had softened.
18:13He leaned back,
18:15watching me.
18:17You still look like you're waiting for someone
18:18to give you permission to breathe.
18:20I'm breathing just fine.
18:23He tilted his head.
18:25You're surviving.
18:27That's not the same thing.
18:29I turned toward him,
18:30quiet.
18:32You talk like you've lived more than 23 years.
18:35Maybe I've just paid attention.
18:38His gaze held mine.
18:39Steady.
18:41Unguarded.
18:41You scare me sometimes,
18:44I said before I could stop myself.
18:46Why?
18:47Because you see too much.
18:49He smiled faintly.
18:52Maybe that's the point.
18:53The silence stretched again,
18:55but this time,
18:57it wasn't distance.
18:58It was recognition.
19:00I could feel everything.
19:02The sunlight on my skin.
19:04The pulse in my wrist.
19:05The air between us that felt too charged to be innocent.
19:08I didn't know if it was love
19:11or something close enough to hurt the same way.
19:15But it was real.
19:17Ethan.
19:18I said finally,
19:20you should be out there,
19:22finding people your own age.
19:24People who don't come with...
19:25history.
19:27He leaned forward,
19:29resting his arms on his knees.
19:31You think I want simple?
19:33I think you deserve it.
19:35He shook his head slowly.
19:38No.
19:39I want truth.
19:41Whatever shape it comes in.
19:43I looked away,
19:45eyes on the sunlight dancing across the grass.
19:47Truth is messy.
19:49Then let's make a mess,
19:51he said softly.
19:53I laughed,
19:55an unsteady sound that felt like something breaking open inside me.
20:00He reached out then,
20:01not in urgency,
20:03but in certainty.
20:04His hand covered mine,
20:07warm,
20:07steady,
20:08steady,
20:09real.
20:09I'm not asking for a promise,
20:12he said.
20:13I just want a chance,
20:15to see where this could go.
20:17To see you,
20:19something in me gave way.
20:20Not with drama or thunder,
20:22but with quiet surrender,
20:24like a door I hadn't realized was locked finally opening.
20:27I looked at him for a long time.
20:30I looked at him for a long time.
20:30His face was sunlit,
20:32his expression open,
20:34unafraid.
20:35Okay,
20:36I said.
20:38Okay?
20:39Yes.
20:39The word felt foreign and right all at once.
20:43He smiled,
20:45that slow,
20:46genuine smile that reached his eyes.
20:49Then let's start there.
20:50We didn't rush it.
20:52That was the beauty of it.
20:54Days turned into small rituals,
20:56morning coffee at the same corner cafe,
20:59walks through the city that stretched longer each time,
21:02conversations that started with jokes and ended in confessions.
21:06He told me about his childhood,
21:08his ambitions,
21:10the way his uncle used to talk about failure
21:12as if it were a friend you had to learn to live with.
21:15I told him about the years I'd spent rebuilding myself,
21:19how it looked strong from the outside,
21:20but felt lonely underneath.
21:23He listened like every word mattered.
21:25Sometimes he'd reach across the table,
21:28fingers brushing mine.
21:30Not to claim.
21:31Just to remind me he was there.
21:34Once I asked,
21:35Aren't you afraid of what people would say?
21:38He shrugged.
21:40They'll say what they want.
21:42But they don't get to live this.
21:45The simplicity of it broke me a little.
21:48It wasn't the grand declarations I'd once thought love required.
21:52It was this.
21:54Sunlight on his face.
21:56Laughter between sentences.
21:58The quiet certainty that I didn't have to be anyone else.
22:02Weeks later,
22:03we stood on a rooftop terrace at sunset.
22:06The city below shimmered,
22:08glass towers catching the last gold of the day.
22:11He leaned on the railing beside me.
22:14Do you ever think about him?
22:16Your ex?
22:17Sometimes, I said.
22:19But it's like remembering a movie I used to know by heart and don't need to watch again.
22:25He nodded.
22:26I get that.
22:28I turned toward him.
22:29He'd hate this, you know.
22:31You and me.
22:33Then maybe that's how I know it's right.
22:34The honesty in his voice made me laugh.
22:38Quiet.
22:39Unguarded.
22:40The wind moved through my hair.
22:42I felt weightless.
22:44Grounded.
22:45Alive.
22:46When I looked at him,
22:47really looked,
22:48it wasn't the age difference or the history that defined what we were.
22:53It was the simple truth that I felt seen.
22:56I don't know where this goes,
22:58I said.
23:00Neither do I,
23:01he replied.
23:02But I know where I want to start.
23:05He reached up,
23:06brushing a loose strand of hair from my face.
23:09His touch was light,
23:11reverent.
23:12The world seemed to pause around us.
23:15Sunlight hit the horizon,
23:16turning everything gold.
23:18The city glowed.
23:20I smiled.
23:21A real smile this time.
23:25You're...
23:25persistent,
23:26aren't you?
23:27I just don't like leaving things unfinished.
23:30Then don't.
23:30He stepped closer,
23:34his voice a whisper that felt like a promise.
23:37I won't.
23:39We stood there.
23:41Two people who shouldn't have found each other,
23:44bathed in the same golden light,
23:46breathing the same air.
23:48The past no longer.
23:51Felt like a prison.
23:52It felt like a path that had somehow led me exactly here.
23:56Later,
23:56as we walked back through the city streets,
23:58his hand slipped into mine.
24:01No one looked twice.
24:03No one cared.
24:04The world went on,
24:05bright and loud,
24:07as if love were the most ordinary thing in it.
24:10And maybe that was the miracle.
24:13For the first time in years,
24:15I didn't feel like I was surviving.
24:17I was living.
24:18And when he turned to me at the crosswalk,
24:21sunlight gleaming in his eyes and said,
24:24Can I see you again tomorrow?
24:27I didn't hesitate.
24:28Yes,
24:29I said.
24:30You can.
24:32He smiled.
24:33That same quiet certainty in his expression.
24:36And the light turned green.
24:37If you felt that pull,
24:40that slow,
24:42quiet kind of love
24:43that finds you when you've stopped looking,
24:46leave A in the comments.
24:48Tell me if you believed in Ava and Ethan's connection.
24:51If you've ever met someone
24:52who made the world look different in daylight.
24:56Follow,
24:57share,
24:57and subscribe for more stories that linger.
25:00Love that feels real,
25:01raw,
25:02and impossible to forget.
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