Glimpses

The week passed in fragments of routine — emails, deadlines, subway rides, coffee runs. Yet, beneath all of it, Elena carried an awareness she hadn’t felt before. The possibility of seeing Adrian again lingered at the edge of her thoughts like a song she couldn’t get out of her head.

On Wednesday morning, she found herself pausing at the café door, scanning the crowd before stepping inside. No sign of him. She told herself it was silly — she wasn’t waiting for him, not really. And yet disappointment tugged at her when the barista called her order and she left without catching that familiar gray-green gaze.

By Friday, she’d almost convinced herself it had been nothing. Two chance encounters in a city of millions. Nothing more.

Until she saw him again.

---

The marketing firm where Elena worked sat on the tenth floor of a glass building downtown. That afternoon, she stepped into the elevator, clutching a stack of presentation boards. Just before the doors closed, a hand slid in, holding them open.

Her breath caught.

Adrian.

He stepped inside, tall and composed, dressed in a crisp charcoal suit that made him look entirely different from the rain-damp stranger she’d met. His eyes widened in recognition, followed by a surprised grin.

“Elena.”

She nearly dropped the boards. “Adrian? What are you—”

“The law office on twelve,” he said, as if that explained everything. “I work there.”

Her brain scrambled. Of all the buildings in the city, of all the floors. He was two above hers.

“That’s… close,” she managed, heart thumping.

“Closer than I thought,” he said, voice warm with amusement.

The elevator hummed upward. For a moment, silence stretched between them, punctuated only by the ding of passing floors. Elena shifted her boards nervously, but Adrian broke the silence first.

“So… graphic design, right?” he asked.

She blinked. “How did you—”

He gestured to the boards. “Just a guess. You look like someone creative.”

Heat rose to her cheeks. “I work at Finch & Co. Marketing.”

He nodded. “I’ve heard of them. Good reputation.” Then, after a beat, “Makes sense. You have that… detail-oriented energy.”

She wasn’t sure if it was a compliment, but the way he said it made her chest tighten.

The elevator dinged. Tenth floor. She stepped out, turning back just as the doors began to close.

“See you around, Elena,” Adrian said, and she caught the flicker of a smile before he disappeared upward.

---

That night, Priya nearly screamed when Elena told her.

“He works two floors above you? Elena, this is basically the universe putting up a neon sign that says pay attention!”

“It’s still coincidence,” Elena protested, though her stomach told her otherwise.

Priya crossed her arms. “Coincidence doesn’t ride the same elevator.”

---

The following week, it kept happening.

A glimpse of him across the lobby. Passing by the café in the building, exchanging nods. Once, they ended up side by side at the security desk, signing in visitors.

Each time, the exchanges were brief, polite, but threaded with something heavier, like a current beneath the surface. Elena tried not to read into it. But she couldn’t ignore how her pulse always jumped when she spotted him.

One afternoon, as she gathered her things to leave, she found a folded note slipped under her sketchbook. For a moment, her heart stopped — but then she realized it was from Priya, who had visited earlier, scrawling Stop overthinking everything! in glitter pen.

Elena laughed, shaking her head. But when she caught herself doodling a familiar profile in the corner of the page, she knew Priya wasn’t entirely wrong.

---

Adrian, meanwhile, found himself lingering in the café a little longer each morning. He told himself it was the coffee. But deep down, he knew it wasn’t.

It was her.

The way she looked caught between confidence and hesitation, the spark in her smile when she forgot to be guarded. He didn’t know why a stranger lingered so vividly in his thoughts — only that he wanted to know her better.

And maybe, just maybe, the universe was giving him the chance.

---

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