Scent of the Lost Love

“Nice to meet you, Marlowe. And if I may say – you’re doing an extraordinary job of making Caelum look like a man who doesn’t deserve you.” “She doesn’t need encouragement in that department,” Caelum said drily. Lysander released my hand and turned back to Caelum with the wounded gravity of a Shakespearean actor. “You…

“Relax. It’s not a horror movie.” I leaned forward, resting my elbows on the white linen, the candlelight dancing between us like a third participant. “The game is called Get to Know Your Partner Better. Simple rules: we take turns. Each turn, you share something real. Something from your past that mattered. No corporate bios,…

I blinked. “You live in a penthouse.” “I’m aware of the irony. The trick is never looking down.” “That’s not a trick. That’s denial.” “Denial is an underrated survival strategy.” I laughed. He looked pleased – the kind of pleased that comes from making someone laugh who you weren’t sure would. “Your turn,” he said.…

The restaurant receded. Not literally – the tables were still there, the candles, the other couples swaying in their own private orbits – but perceptually. The edges of the room went soft, the sounds muffled, until the world contracted to the size of us. His hands on my waist. My hands on his chest. The…

“Coincidence.” “Lysander.” A grin broke through the performance – wide, guilty, unrepentant. “Fine. Guilty. It was beautiful and I regret nothing.” “Delete it,” Caelum said, without conviction. “Don’t you dare,” I interjected. Both men looked at me. “Send it to Caelum. He’ll send it to me.” “Done,” Lysander said, already tapping his screen. “I didn’t…

I kissed him back. My hands found his chest, and beneath my palms his heart was hammering – wild, uneven, the heartbeat of a man who couldn’t believe what was happening and was terrified it might stop. I felt that fear, recognized it, shared it. We were both standing at the edge of something neither…

I glanced at the screen. Unknown number. My thumb hovered. Unknown numbers had brought me nothing but grief lately – Caelum’s initial intrusion into my life had started with a stranger, and I’d developed a Pavlovian suspicion of anyone who hadn’t earned a spot in my contacts. But curiosity – that stubborn, self-destructive trait that…

Then the warmth soured, just slightly, into disappointment. He was already gone. The surprise I’d planned – showing up at his door, seeing his face light up – had been preempted by his work ethic. I sat on the bed’s edge, chewing my lower lip. The roses watched me with the patient attentiveness of flowers…

I grabbed it, ignored the notifications, and called Sable. Ring. Ring. Ring. Nothing. I tried again. Ring. Ring. Ring. Voicemail. “Sable, it’s me. I need you. I’m trying to surprise Caelum at work and I don’t know where he works and I left my phone in the bathroom and Sterling won’t stop texting me and…

The building was a monument to ambition. It rose from the city block like something that had grown rather than been built – forty stories of glass and steel and the kind of architectural arrogance that said: the person who works here shapes things. The sun hit its surface and shattered into a thousand reflected…