The One After Always

Just like coffee, love burns-bitter on the tongue, sweet on the fall.
For Ms. Liliane, forever is a lie dressed in warmth and promises.
Every story begins with a spark-and ends, inevitably, in ash.
Yet endings never stopped her.
She keeps tasting what ruins her, chasing what leaves her hollow,
because even the ache feels alive.

But this time, the game isn't hers to control.
He watches her the way a scientist observes a flame-
curious, detached, waiting to see how long before it consumes itself.
And while he claims to know nothing of love,
she begins to suspect he understands destruction all too well.

After all, some addictions don't kill you instantly-
they make you wish they would.