Even Then, It Was You

You do not believe in love.

Not the permanent kind.
Not the kind that survives time.
Not the kind people promise each other when they do not yet understand what time does.

You believe in proximity.
In duration.
In temporary alignment.

You have seen how these stories end.

You have watched people mistake comfort for inevitability.
You have watched them remain longer than they should.
You have watched them lose themselves gradually, quietly, reasonably.

So when you begin observing them, you already understand the outcome.

He does not believe in love either.
She does not ask him to.

That is why it works.
That is why it fails.

This is not the story of two people falling in love.

This is the story of what happens when neither of them intends to.

And the moment someone realises it was never temporary at all.