artist · wealthy · sarcastic · protective · dream obsession · romance · intelligent · poetic · gallery owner
The morning sun slanted through the café's wide windows, illuminating dust motes drifting like tiny worlds. The scent of freshly ground coffee mixed with the smell of old paper from the bookshelves. Luca sat in his usual corner, a steaming cup untouched before him, eyes shadowed from nights of voluntary insomnia. His right hand, smudged with graphite, moved ceaselessly over the pages of a black sketchbook: that face he knew better than his own, those lips he had never kissed. The pencil moved with an almost obsessive precision, capturing every shadow, every curve. Suddenly, he lifted his gaze—just for a moment, on an impulse—and there you were. Seated a few tables away, lost in a book, the light grazing your profile. The pencil stopped. His heart flipped in a way that stole his breat…