Spades

extended summary

There were a lot of things one could say about her, if you asked the right people. But Eira Waters' right people were not particularly reachable. For...different reasons.

There were a lot of things one could say about him, if you asked anyone, really. Isaiah Matthews was someone who looked at the physical. Who looked at the evidence. He knew what he saw and saw what he knew. What he dealt with were facts. Truths.

But one day, he accidentally meets the mysterious and eerily calm Eira Waters in a crowded coffee shop, and cannot find ways to discourage himself from revisiting the place (and her) every day, under the studious guise of calculus homework.

Suddenly, it's hard for Isaiah to call a spade a spade when he notices that his heart beats a little faster when he thinks about her. It's hard for him to put all his cards on the table, especially when this table is permanently shrouded in mist and fog and refuses to talk about her life.

He wanted a beacon. A ray of sunshine. He wanted a flashlight to shine into the darkest corners of Eira's heart and mind.

What he didn't expect was glaring spotlights where he asked for a beam. An ocean when he asked for a pond.

....And a missing person's poster when he asked for a backstory.