Morning arrived softly, its light filtering through the thin hotel curtains like a hesitant secret. Richard padded across the floor on bare feet, the boards cool against his skin. Behind him, the faint hum of the air conditioner whispered like distant rain.
Ahce moved across the room with her usual silence, every step measured, precise, deliberate. She disappeared into the bathroom, the door clicking shut as a faint hiss of running water filled the air. Steam soon began to gather behind the frosted glass, curling upward in silver ribbons.
She's really cute.
Richard stood still, watching. There was something disarming about the simplicity of it all, the way she moved, the quiet ordinariness of the morning. After so many nights fractured by fear and half-remembered dreams, this moment of domestic stillness felt almost unreal.
