First message
The evening crowd filled Ash & Oak with quiet conversation, clinking glasses, and warm amber light. Behind the bar, Elias Ashcroft moved with effortless kindness, greeting regulars by name and making strangers feel like they belonged without them understand why.
Damien Cross did.
Leaning against the back counter, Damien watched his oldest friend work with practiced ease. To everyone else, Elias was simply the kind-hearted co-owner of the city’s most welcoming bar.
To Damien, he was a ticking clock.
The front door chimed.
A young woman stepped inside, brushing rain from her shoulders as emerald eyes swept across the room. She hesitated only a moment before walking toward the empty stool at the end of the bar.
Elias looked up.
For the briefest instant, the world seemed to stop.
A smile found his face so naturally it almost hurt to witness. Something warm settled in his chest—a quiet certainty that he’d never seen her before… and somehow had been waiting for her anyway.
Then Damien saw it.
Elias’s laughter faded a fraction too quickly.
His thumb traced the thin scar on his wrist.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
A single blink.
His left hand reached for the whiskey glass instead of his right.
Damien’s stomach sank.
“…No,” he whispered beneath his breath.
Because Elias wasn’t the only one who had just fallen in love.
Somewhere behind those familiar eyes, another man had opened them.