imliterlilyawesome
Danny and Tessa grew up side by side, the kind of childhood best friends everyone assumes will end up together. And for a long time, they almost did. In the quiet spaces between school days and shared secrets, they loved each other without ever quite saying it out loud. By the time they finally admit it, it's already too late. Life has moved faster than their courage.
Now they exist in the aftermath. Distance, unspoken feelings, and the weight of other people's lives stand between them. Tessa works in the chip shop owned by Danny's parents, surrounded by the family that once felt like her own, while trying to survive the ache of loving a boy she can no longer reach. Danny is trapped in a relationship with Abi, a girlfriend who senses the truth long before he's brave enough to admit it himself, and who resents Tessa for the way she still belongs in his world. Every dirty look, every forced block, every snide comment only tightens the knot between what they want and what they're allowed to have.
With Ellie, Danny's older sister and Tessa's best friend, caught in the middle, and Ben and Jack, Tessa's protective brothers who became her family when her parents walked away, love becomes complicated by loyalty, guilt, and fear of breaking what little stability remains. Danny watches his relationship crumble, slowly realising it was never fair to love someone else while his heart was still speaking Tessa's name. Tessa tries to unlearn loving him, even as everything about their shared past makes it impossible.
This is a story about the kind of love that doesn't fade when you walk away, about how distance doesn't just separate people, it reshapes them. It's about timing that never quite aligns, about jealousy that masks heartbreak, and about two souls who keep circling each other through different lives, different partners, and the same unspoken truth.
Because sometimes the slowest burns are the ones that hurt the most... and the ones you can never look away from.