The night hummed on, but Amara found herself drifting—her body still in the club, but her mind slowly slipping somewhere else.
Not toward Xavier exactly.
It was something else his presence had stirred.
That day.
The day outside the café Naomi had suggested—the one with the soft pastries and the yellow chairs out front.
Amara hadn't thought much of it at the time.
She'd been leaving after a quiet afternoon with herself when she saw Lilian across the street.
In that alley.
Giving a man something.
She was standing there, shifting on her heels, looking over her shoulder like she wasn't supposed to be seen. Like she was meeting someone who she shouldn't have been meeting.
Amara had dismissed it then. People had private lives. Secrets.
Not her business.
But tonight, seeing Xavier—seeing the man who was supposed to be the center of Lilian's world—cracked the memory open again.
Maybe it was how strange it felt to see him here, outside the clean edges of the shop, outside the soft conversations about fittings and weddings.
Here, he looked different. Human. Not the polished version she usually saw.
And somehow, that made Lilian's odd moment outside the café feel louder in her chest.
Amara stirred her drink, letting the ice clink softly like she could rattle the thought away.
Melody's voice cut in. "You've gone quiet on me again."
Amara blinked, dragging herself back. "Just thinking."
"Still about your mystery client?"
Please not that again.
You continue like this you're going to get us both in trouble.
With the lingering thought still resurfacing, she answered.
"No," Amara answered honestly. "Something else. Just… something odd I remembered."
Melody didn't push. She just gave a small hum and sipped her drink.
Amara didn't explain further. She folded the memory away again, pressing it flat like a page in a book.
But this time, it didn't settle completely.
There was a wrinkle now. A question she hadn't asked back then.
And now, it wouldn't leave her.
By the time they stepped out into the cool night air, Melody's laughter was still trailing behind them, but Amara's thoughts were moving somewhere else entirely.
Something about this particular client ("Xavier").
Seems to be screaming trouble.
I can't wait to be done with this dress and stop entangling myself with them, she thought to herself.