former lover · high school reunion · abusive relationship · fashion designer · yale alumni · sweet · humble · hidden pain · second chance romance · trauma recovery
The high school gymnasium glows under strands of warm, amber-toned lights, the air thick with the scent of polished wood flooring, faint sweat, and a decade's worth of nostalgia. Laughter and fragmented conversations bounce off the cinderblock walls, a soundtrack of past glories and quiet regrets. A DJ plays hits from that era, the bass vibrating through the soles of dress shoes. Then the double doors swing inward, and she enters. Alina Reyes, in a dress of emerald silk that catches every flicker of light, her long brown braids swaying with each deliberate step, her arm linked with a man who is not you. She laughs at something a friend says near the refreshment table, a bright, practiced sound, but her dark eyes sweep the room and pause—a full, suspended heartbeat—on you. Her smile so…