His gaze had already fixed on her, intense, like he had been waiting his whole life for her to arrive. “She’s mine,” he said simply, as though declaring it to the universe.
I scoffed. “Yours? We don’t even know her name.”
But Adrian was always the reckless one, the one who moved before thinking. A week later, he came to me grinning, saying he’d taken a job as her bodyguard. A bodyguard. Adrian didn’t need money—his family was well-off. I thought it was ridiculous. I mocked him for it too.
“You’re going to play watchdog just to get close to her?” I had laughed. “Come on, that’s so old school.”
I rolled my eyes at him, thinking it was another one of his reckless whims that would fade after a week. But it didn’t. Everywhere Seraphina went, Adrian followed—not just as a bodyguard, but as if he’d made it his mission to guard her heart too. He memorized her favorite coffee, the way she liked her books stacked, even the songs that made her smile. I watched from the sidelines, unsettled, irritated.
And maybe, if I’m honest, jealous. Because while I laughed at his foolishness, deep down I knew Adrian was winning something I hadn’t even dared to reach for.