The rain hadn't stopped in days, and neither had the echo of Elias pulling away.
Amelia sat in the café where she worked, wiping down tables between customers. She tried to lose herself in routine, but her mind kept replaying the moment his eyes lingered on her lips, the way the silence had almost tipped into something dangerous, something beautiful—before he'd destroyed it.
"Miss Laurent?"
She looked up to see a man standing at the counter. Tall, effortlessly charming, with a shock of blond hair and an accent that carried warmth instead of distance.
"Sebastian?" she gasped, setting the rag aside.
He grinned. "In the flesh. I thought you'd vanished from the conservatory after—well… everything."
Amelia's chest tightened. Sebastian had been a classmate, another violinist. Talented. Easy to like. And once upon a time, he had almost been something more.
They slipped easily into conversation, laughter filling the air like old times. She didn't notice the figure entering the café until the air seemed to shift.
Elias.
He froze at the sight of her laughing with Sebastian, his expression unreadable but his jaw set tight. Slowly, he crossed the room and stopped at her table.
"Amelia." His voice was clipped, formal. "We have work."
She blinked. "Now? I'm still on shift—"
"I'll wait." His grey eyes flicked to Sebastian, cool and assessing.
Sebastian extended a hand with a polite smile. "Sebastian Klein."
Elias looked at the hand but didn't take it. "Elias Volkner." His tone carried the sharpness of broken glass.
The tension was suffocating. Amelia quickly stepped in. "Sebastian was just catching up. He's—"
"A distraction," Elias interrupted flatly.
Her cheeks flushed. "Excuse me?"
"You said you wanted to finish the composition. I assumed you were serious."
Sebastian raised his brows but excused himself, sensing the storm brewing. Once he was gone, Amelia turned on Elias, furious.
"You had no right to speak to him like that."
Elias's eyes flashed. "And you had no right to look at him like that."
The words slipped out before he could stop them. Silence crashed down.
Amelia's breath caught. "What is that supposed to mean?"
He looked away, rigid, as if already regretting it. His fists tightened at his sides. "It means nothing."
"Elias—"
"It means nothing!" His voice cracked, too raw, too loud for the quiet café. Heads turned. Elias flinched, his mask cracking for just a moment before he turned sharply and left.
Amelia stood frozen, her heart pounding.
It didn't mean nothing.
It meant everything.