The next morning, June disappeared.

Not intentionally.

Not rudely.

Not even unexpectedly.

She simply became busy.

The transformation happened so quickly that it was almost impressive.

One moment she was sitting across from Elliot, laughing at something neither of them would remember a week later.

The next, she was answering emails while walking, checking schedules between conversations, and apologizing every twenty minutes for looking at her phone.

Elliot wasn't surprised.

If anything, this was the version of June he knew best.

The one with somewhere to be.

Something to finish.

Someone waiting for an answer.

The version that seemed permanently pulled toward the next thing.

At ten in the morning, she sent a message.

Meeting.

At one in the afternoon, another.

Sorry.

At four, another.

Still alive.

Elliot laughed when he read that one.

Then put his phone away.

The strange thing was that he wasn't disappointed.

Not really.

Four years was enough time to learn certain truths about a person.

June wasn't avoiding him.

June wasn't being rude.

June was simply being June.

The realization should have made things easier.

Somehow, it didn't.

By late afternoon, Elliot found himself sitting alone at a small café overlooking the river.

The city moved lazily around him.

People walked dogs.

Tourists took photographs.

Cyclists nearly caused accidents.

Life continued exactly as it always had.

For a while, he worked.

Then he stopped.

Then worked again.

Then checked his phone.

Nothing.

He laughed at himself immediately.

The habit was embarrassing.

The sort of habit that should have disappeared years ago.

Apparently it hadn't.

The phone remained face down on the table for nearly an hour.

Then it vibrated.

A message.

Elliot reached for it immediately.

Then pretended he hadn't.

The message contained four words.

Free in thirty minutes.

Elliot stared at the screen.

Then smiled despite himself.

A customer at the next table glanced over.

Elliot immediately hid the smile.

The customer looked unconvinced.

Thirty minutes later became forty-five.

Then fifty.

Then an hour.

June eventually arrived breathless and carrying entirely too many things.

A laptop.

A bag.

A jacket.

Several problems.

"Sorry."

Elliot laughed.

"There she is."

"I said I'd be here."

"You did."

"You sound surprised."

"A little."

June dropped into the chair opposite him.

For several seconds neither of them spoke.

Not because it was awkward.

Because June looked exhausted.

The kind of exhausted that sleep couldn't fix.

Elliot recognized it immediately.

He'd seen it through calls.

Messages.

Photographs.

Now he was seeing it in person.

For some reason, that made it feel more real.

"You okay?"

June nodded automatically.

Then immediately shook her head.

"Not really."

The honesty caught both of them off guard.

June laughed first.

Then Elliot joined in.

The conversation drifted naturally after that.

Projects.

Professors.

Work.

The future.

The usual subjects.

At one point June became distracted by something happening behind him.

At another point she forgot what she was saying halfway through a sentence.

At a third point she accidentally drank from the wrong cup.

Elliot spent most of the evening pretending not to notice.

June spent most of the evening pretending she hadn't noticed him noticing.

The sun had almost disappeared by the time they left.

The streets glowed orange beneath the fading light.

People filled the restaurants.

Music drifted from somewhere nearby.

For a few minutes they walked without speaking.

The silence felt comfortable.

The kind earned over time.

Eventually June stopped.

"Thanks."

Elliot looked at her.

"For what?"

She shrugged.

"For waiting."

The answer arrived so casually that Elliot almost missed it.

Almost.

For a second, neither of them moved.

Then June looked away first.

As she usually did whenever a conversation threatened to become more serious than intended.

Elliot smiled.

A small one.

The kind she didn't see.

"I wasn't doing anything important."

June laughed.

"That's definitely not true."

Maybe.

But Elliot didn't argue.

Because some things were easier to leave unsaid.

The city continued moving around them.

Cars passed.

People talked.

Someone somewhere dropped a glass.

Life remained busy.

Complicated.

Messy.

Exactly as it had always been.

Yet as Elliot watched June disappear around the corner toward another meeting, another deadline, another version of tomorrow, he found himself thinking the same thing he'd been thinking for years.

She was always going somewhere.

And somehow, despite knowing that, he had still shown up.

Every time.