Chapter 4 : A Night Meant for Us

The drive back was quiet, but not empty. The sky had shifted to a dusky violet, the last remnants of daylight clinging to the horizon. You leaned against the window, the wind playing with your hair, your gaze distant, lost somewhere between the city and the garden we were returning to.

"Do you ever feel like..." You hesitated, your fingers tapping lightly against your knee. "Like this place—your home, your garden—was waiting for me?"

The question hung between us, delicate, uncertain.

I gripped the steering wheel a little tighter, my eyes fixed on the road ahead. "I think I've always been waiting for you."

You didn't answer right away, but I saw the way your lips parted slightly, the way your shoulders softened as if something inside you had finally been understood. And in that moment, nothing else mattered—not the city we left behind, not the roads stretching ahead. Only this, only us, only the quiet pull of something deeper than words.

By the time we reached the garden, night had settled over the world, the stars like scattered petals against an endless dark. The roses, bathed in silver moonlight, swayed gently in the evening breeze, their fragrance softer, more intimate under the cloak of night. I parked beneath the willow tree, and for a moment, neither of us moved.

Then, you turned to me, your eyes reflecting the glow of the stars, of something unspoken yet understood. "Let's stay outside for a while."

So we did.

We walked through the garden, slow steps between the flowers, the grass cool beneath our feet. The world felt different at night—quieter, softer, as if it had exhaled and finally let itself rest. And beneath that sky, beneath the hush of the universe, I reached for your hand.

You didn't pull away.

And maybe that was enough.

For now..