I adore you and that's the problem.

Marcus and her were never supposed to become complicated.

At least, that's what they told themselves.

What started as distance, silence, and carefully avoided conversations slowly turned into something neither of them could ignore-something that lingered in every glance, every pause, every almost-said confession.

But feelings like this don't stay quiet forever.

Especially not when they've already been felt.

Between trying to rebuild what was broken and pretending they were just figuring things out, they kept slipping closer to something neither of them had the courage to name.

Because the truth was simple.

They didn't stop caring.

They just stopped knowing what to do with it.

And now that they've finally said it out loud...
there's no going back to pretending it never mattered.

Not when it already does.