Before she knew it

Olivia Carter thought she had already lived her love story.
And survived its ending.

At twenty-three, she doesn't believe in forever anymore.
Only in people who stay long enough to leave a mark.

Then Xavier Bennett shows up.
Too young. Too bright. Too full of life to understand the weight she carries.

He becomes a habit before he becomes a thought.
Walking her home.
Checking if she ate.
Remembering the smallest things she forgets about herself.

And somewhere between late-night calls and shared silence,
Olivia starts to feel something she promised herself she wouldn't again.

Not love.
Not yet.
Something worse.
Hope.

But timing is cruel.
And love, for people like her, never arrives when it's convenient.
It arrives when everything is already breaking.

And Xavier?
He might be the first person who stayed...
long enough to matter.

Or the next one she has to learn how to lose.
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A slow-burn, friends-to-lovers romance about almosts, timing, and the kind of love that feels like coming home... even when it doesn't stay.