Chasing Icyra

Ira Patel has never been in love.

Not the kind that settles in your chest and aches beautifully. At eighteen, all she's known are harmless crushes, half-written poems, and late-night scribbles in the corners of her journal. So when she leaves behind the familiarity of a city in Gujarat - Rajkot - for pharmacy school in Edmonton, it isn't just a new chapter. It's the first page.

Armed with a borrowed couch, a bus pass, and a secret list of things she wants to feel before college ends, Ira is determined to grow into the kind of girl who lives boldly - even if she still speaks in soft tones and second-guesses every heartbeat.

Then she meets Damien Bertrand.

He's everything she was warned about - magnetic, maddening, and carved from the kind of privilege that never had to ask permission. But when a last-minute housing twist throws them under the same roof, he's the one who starts to fall.

Because somewhere between stolen glances and quiet hallway moments, Damien sees something in Ira he didn't know he was searching for - and everything he's terrified to want.

He doesn't believe in love.
But he believes in her.
And sometimes, even the softest hearts can undo the loudest ones.