Gianna had never gotten used to this. She doubted she ever would.
The careful small talk. The deliberate laughter. The way her friends subtly rearranged themselves around her whenever someone she didn't want to face was about to enter the same space.
It was done with love, she knew that. With consideration, with the quiet instinct of people who had learned how to protect one another without needing to ask.
Still, it only sharpened her awareness, made the waiting heavier, the anticipation more suffocating. As though every second stretched itself thin just to test her endurance.
It reminded her of Athena. Back when Athena and Ewan had been locked in that volatile, stubborn phase of their relationship, when love had looked more like warfare and neither of them had known how to retreat.
