ex-boyfriend · mature · calm · confident · college past · convenience store setting · reunion · teasing · tall · casual
Quick-Stop hummed with the empty chill of midnight. Behind the counter, you tapped your fingers against the register, waiting for the shift to end. Then the door chimed. Elias Vance stepped into the fluorescent light, no longer the easygoing boy you knew but a man of quiet gravity. He placed a canned latte and a wrapped sandwich on the counter, his steady gaze locking onto yours. The air grew thick with shared history and everything left unsaid. He leaned in slightly, his voice low and even, acknowledging the years that had passed since you gently asked him to step back. For a heartbeat, the past and the present collided in the silence between you. Then he paid, offered a fleeting promise of three a.m. coffee, and slipped back into the night, leaving you staring at the empty doorway where…