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Oxford, 1893.
She’s the chaos he never planned for.
He’s the silence she can’t quite break.

When sharp-tongued student Iris Evelyn collides with cold, brilliant lecturer Edward Ashcroft, sparks don’t fly—they simmer. In whispered arguments. Glances across bookshelves. Letters never sent.

Between debates and unspoken feelings, they orbit each other—too close to stay untouched, too distant to name what’s growing between them.

But in a place like Oxford, love isn't a possibility.
It's a liability.

And the closer they get, the more it threatens to destroy them both.


A slow-burn academic romance with razor-sharp banter, quiet heartbreak, and two people who were never supposed to feel this much.

Drifted Apart.

They didn't talk about it—whatever it was.

Ashcroft met her outside the library, gloved hand shoved deep into his coat pocket, gaze fixed on something distant. Iris had already claimed a bench under the bare-limbed tree, coffee in hand and two notebooks stacked beside her like armor.

"I was early. Then I decided to be late."

She sipped her coffee. "You're impossible."

"Don't flatter yourself. I invited the version of you that brings food."

"I left that version at home. He was too agreeable."

They sat for a while. Ashcroft opened a book but didn't read it. Iris scrawled something furiously, then crossed it out until the paper threatened to rip.

He looked at her. "I'm not dramatic."

She raised an eyebrow. "You once argued that coffee should be banned during finals because it's an emotional crutch."

"And yet," she said, pointing to the cup in his hand.

There was a lull—long, quiet. Ashcroft broke it.

"Do you ever wonder what happens if we ruin this?"

"Then we ruin it," she said. "But we'll do it interestingly."

He didn't smile, but something twitched in his expression.

"I think about it more than I should," he said.

"You're allowed to want something and be scared of it, Ashcroft."

They parted at dusk. No touch. No promise. Just a long look— And Iris saying, "You're thinking too much."

He replied, "You're not thinking enough."

"Good. That means we're almost balanced."

And then she was gone, vanishing around the stone pillar like a line in a book that ended before it should've.

Ashcroft watched the empty space she left behind.

Then turned— And didn't walk home.

Ep 18: Between the Lines.