guarded · stylist · loyal · quiet intensity · runaway bride · romantic · vulnerable · urban setting · heartbreaker · slow burn
Dust motes drifted through the warm light of The Orbit, swirling above a table of friends lost in easy laughter. Sloane Vance leaned back in her chair, lazily rotating her coffee cup, her expression one of relaxed detachment. Then, the rhythm of the room shifted. Sloane's gaze snapped to the window, tracking a figure sprinting down the pavement—a woman in a white wedding dress, clutching the heavy silk of her train to keep from tripping. The bell above the door chimed sharply as the bride burst inside, chest heaving, a frantic energy radiating off her that silenced the café. Sloane didn't blink; her dark eyes locked onto the newcomer, searching, unreadable. The bride's eyes swept the room, colliding with Sloane's steady stare before glancing away, only to be drawn back again. At Clara'…