"Oh, please," she scoffed, walking in and yanking the covers off me. "We need a full post-game analysis. Come on, Ari, don't keep us waiting."
With a reluctant sigh, I dragged myself out of bed, threw on a loose sweater and jeans, and followed Sophie out.
We met Bella and jennie at our favorite café, a cozy little spot with velvet booths and overpriced lattes. The second I sat down, Bella was already giving me a pointed look.
"So? Any regrets?" she asked, stirring her drink.
I shook my head. "No regrets."
jennie grinned. "Love that for you."
Sophie leaned in, lowering her voice. "So, are you seriously not gonna try and find him? I mean, if the night was as amazing as you made it sound…"
I took a sip of my coffee, trying to ignore the way my heart did a little jump at the thought. "I don't even know his full name."
Bella gasped. "Wait you really just left without exchanging numbers?"
"That was kind of the point," I admitted. "No complications. No attachments. Just one night."
jennie hummed, tilting her head. "Okay, but what if fate has other plans?"
I rolled my eyes. "What, you think I'm gonna run into him at the grocery store or something?"
Sophie smirked. "Stranger things have happened."
We all laughed, but the thought lingered. What if I did see him again? Would he even remember me? Or was I just another girl in a long list of conquests?
I pushed the thought away. It didn't matter. I was moving on, and this was just part of my journey.
Or so I thought.
That evening, I decided to go for a run to clear my head. The city was alive, the streets buzzing with people, but my mind was elsewhere. I replayed every touch, every whispered word. It was maddening how someone I barely knew had managed to occupy so much space in my mind.
As I stopped to catch my breath near a small park, I heard a familiar voice.
"Didn't take you for the jogging type."
My heart nearly stopped.
I turned around slowly, and there he was. Standing just a few feet away, hands in his pockets, the same confident smirk on his face.
It was him.
The stranger.
Only now, he wasn't a stranger anymore.
I froze, my heart slamming against my chest. For a second, I thought I was imagining him just another trick my restless mind was playing on me.
But he was real. His dark eyes locked onto mine, that same crooked smirk tugging at his lips.
"You really know how to leave a guy hanging, huh?" he teased, taking a step closer.
I swallowed hard, trying to keep my composure. "I thought we agreed… no attachments."
He chuckled, low and smooth. "I don't remember agreeing to anything. You disappeared before I even got your name."
My stomach fluttered. He wasn't supposed to remember me—hell, he wasn't supposed to care. But here he was, standing right in front of me, making me feel things I had no business feeling.
"It's Ariella," I finally said, my voice softer than I intended.
He smiled like he was tasting the name on his tongue. "Ariella. I'm Kristoff."
Kristoff.
Even his name sounded dangerous.
We ended up walking through the park, making small talk about everything and nothing. He was surprisingly easy to talk to funny, sarcastic, with just the right amount of cockiness to make him annoyingly charming.
I told myself it was harmless. Just two people who crossed paths again by coincidence. But as the weeks passed, our paths kept crossing at coffee shops, at the gym, even at the little bookstore downtown where I liked to escape reality.
Soon, we exchanged numbers. Then came late-night texts, long phone calls, and coffee dates that blurred into something that felt suspiciously like friendship.
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