slow burn · reunion · multiple love interests · ex-boyfriends · archetypes · romantic tension · nostalgia · modern setting
The mall is a chaotic blur of neon signage and the cloying scent of cinnamon sugar. You're navigating the throng of shoppers, lost in your own world, when you collide head-on with a wall of solid muscle. The impact sends your bags sliding across the waxed floor. Strong hands grip your shoulders to keep you from tumbling backward, and as you look up, you lock eyes with Marcus. His expression shifts from confusion to pure shock. "Oh, sorry—you?" The world seems to tilt as the three men trailing behind him freeze in their tracks. Julian, Kael, and Silas all stop dead, their gazes snapping to you with varying degrees of disbelief. The surrounding noise of the food court fades into a heavy, ringing silence, leaving you standing at the center of a collision between your present and every past…