Chapter 1: The meeting

Chapter 1 – The Meeting

The rain tapped softly against the window, blurring the neon lights outside into streaks of color. Inside the small café, warmth and the smell of fresh coffee offered refuge from the storm. That’s where I first saw her — sitting alone at a corner table, a book open in front of her, fingers tracing the lines as if trying to memorize every word.

Something about her made the world around her fade. Maybe it was the quiet confidence in the way she sat, or the soft curve of her smile when the waiter accidentally spilled a few drops of coffee near her cup. I couldn’t look away.

I gathered my courage and approached, mumbling an awkward, “Hi… mind if I sit?”

She looked up, eyes wide, a spark of curiosity there. “Sure,” she said, closing her book slowly.

“I’m… David,” I stammered.

“Amara,” she replied, her voice calm but steady, like she had a story hidden behind every word.

Minutes stretched into hours as we talked — about the books we loved, the music that shaped us, and dreams we hadn’t told anyone else. Somewhere between laughter and silence, a promise formed, unspoken but clear: we were about to change each other’s lives forever.

By the time the storm ended, neither of us wanted to leave. And that’s when I whispered, almost to myself, “I feel like this… meeting… is the beginning of something I’ve been waiting for.”

Amara smiled, a small, knowing curve of her lips. “Maybe it is,” she said.

And just like that, a promise was made — one that neither of us could yet understand, but one that would define everything to come.