"Hey, Leo…" Evelyn's voice, soft and familiar, hit Leonard like a punch to the gut, each syllable echoing in his ears. The simple words carried the weight of a shared past, of memories and feelings he was struggling to contain.
A flood of emotions washed over him—relief, sadness, longing, and a flicker of hope. Her voice, once a distant sound in his memory, now enveloped him like gravity itself, pulling him back to a past he'd almost forgotten.
"Hey… Eve…," he replied, his voice thick with emotion, as he quickly wiped away the lone tear that had escaped.
A faint, almost imperceptible smile touched Evelyn's lips. "Look at that, I see I've got a new nickname." She looked away for a moment, adjusting a strand of hair that stubbornly fell over her face, before continuing, her voice firm but with a hint of melancholy: "We need to talk, Leo."