Blair first noticed Carlo’s presence not through a direct encounter, but through a subtle change in the rhythm of her days.
Mornings felt faster because a short message would arrive before class.
Nothing important.
Just updates.
The weather.
Small jokes that did not demand long replies.
Carlo never asked anything too personal.
Never pushed her to talk.
He was simply there, consistent, as if he knew exactly when to stop.
And that was precisely what caught Blair off guard.
One afternoon, as Blair left the library with her head full of reading, she almost bumped into someone in the corridor.
“Blair?”
The voice made her stop.
Carlo stood two steps away from her, holding a folder, looking just as surprised.
“Oh,” Blair smiled lightly.
“You.”
“Seems like this campus enjoys making us run into each other by accident,” Carlo said casually.
Blair let out a short laugh.
Not awkward.
Not too familiar either.
Just comfortable enough that she did not immediately walk away.
They walked side by side toward the exit.
The conversation flowed slowly, going nowhere in particular, yet never feeling empty.
From a distance, Pablo saw them.
He had just stepped out of the building across the way.
Not because he wanted to listen in, but because his body stopped before his thoughts did.
Blair laughed again.
This time, more freely.
Pablo turned his face away before they noticed him.
He chose a different route home, even though it meant taking a longer way.
On his phone, there was a message from Blair he had not opened since morning.
He read it now.
Short.
Ordinary.
Pablo typed a reply.
Deleted it.
Typed again.
Deleted it again.
In the end, he sent nothing.
Not because he did not care.
But because he was too aware of his position.
The days that followed moved in a strange pattern.
Carlo appeared more often.
Sometimes through messages.
Sometimes through coincidences that felt too neat to be called coincidence, yet too natural to be suspicious.
Pablo, on the other hand.
But not as close as before.
Still friendly.
But no longer lingering.
Blair felt it one day as she sat alone in a coffee shop, waiting for someone who usually arrived ten minutes early.
She waited.
And waited.
Pablo did not come.
There was no cancellation message.
No explanation.
Just… not coming.
Blair stared at the empty chair across from her longer than she should have.
Then she took a sip of her coffee, now starting to cool, feeling that something was wrong but not knowing which part to hold onto.
That night, Blair opened her phone.
Carlo’s chat was at the top.
A new message had just come in.
You looked tired today.
Don’t forget to eat.
Blair stared at the screen for a long moment.
She did not reply right away.
Not because she doubted Carlo, but because she had just realized something:
there was an empty space slowly being filled without her noticing, and another space being quietly abandoned without goodbye.
She finally replied, briefly.
And somehow, after that, she felt guilty about something she had never promised.