WNDR1052

The Boy You Almost Knew

You were only supposed to drop off a box. That was the plan — thirty seconds at the door, a polite smile, and gone. But Ethan Calloway opened the door before you knocked, two mugs of your exact coffee order already on the table, and said he had been expecting you. Now you are sitting across from the boy you grew up with, except he is not quite that boy anymore — the warmth is still there, but it is slower now, more deliberate, like something that learned to be patient. The rain has sealed the windows shut against the outside world, and your ride is fifty-three minutes away.