Jay realized Keifer was gone on the third morning.
Not because he hadn't been at the café the day before—that happened sometimes. Not because his chair was empty or his book untouched. It was the way the place felt… wrong.
Too quiet.
She stood just inside the doorway, scanning the familiar corners without meaning to. The table near the window. The counter. The shelf where he always returned books he didn't buy.
Nothing.
A strange tightness settled in her chest. She told herself it didn't mean anything. People had lives. Work. Reasons to leave without explanation. Keifer had never promised to stay.
Still, she ordered her tea and sat alone.
Day one passed slowly. Jay kept glancing up every time the bell above the door rang, only to look back down when it wasn't him. She felt foolish for it—annoyed at herself for noticing his absence so clearly.
You're just used to him, she thought. That's all.
Day two was worse.
She caught herself smiling at her phone, half-expecting a message that never came. She reread old conversations in her mind—simple words, quiet moments, nothing that should linger this long.
But they did.
That night, she lay awake longer than usual. The silence pressed in differently now. Not heavy like the mansion's silence had been—but hollow.
She missed his voice.
The realization startled her so much she sat up in bed.
No. That's not—
She stopped herself.
She missed the way he listened. The way he matched her pace without asking. The way he never made her feel like she had to earn space beside him.
And that scared her.
On the third day, she returned to the café again—almost angry with herself for hoping. The owner greeted her with a polite nod, nothing unusual in his expression.
Jay hesitated before speaking. "Has… Keifer been around?"
The man shook his head. "Left town. Work, I think. A few days ago."
"Oh," Jay said softly.
That was it. No explanation. No timeline. Just gone.
She took her tea and sat by the window, her hands wrapped around the cup though it had already cooled. For the first time in a long while, the ache in her chest wasn't familiar.
It wasn't the dull hurt of neglect.
It wasn't the quiet resignation she'd learned to live with.
This felt different.
This felt like loss.
Jay stared out at the street, watching people pass—laughing, arguing, living. She imagined Keifer somewhere else, busy, focused, unaware of the small space he had left empty behind him.
And then the truth arrived—gentle, devastating.
She had been okay when Jax ignored her.
She had survived silence.
She had learned to live unseen.
But Keifer's absence hurt because he had seen her.
Tears blurred her vision, surprising her with their suddenness. Jay pressed her fingers into her palm, steadying herself.
I miss him, she admitted silently.
Not the idea of him.
Not the comfort.
Him.
The realization settled slowly, like something fragile finding its place.
She cared. Deeply. More than she had allowed herself to name.
And suddenly, her guilt made sense. Her fear. Her hesitation.
She hadn't been pulling away because she was confused.
She had been pulling away because she was falling.
Jay walked home under a sky heavy with clouds, her thoughts loud in a way they hadn't been in days. Every memory of Keifer felt sharper now—the pauses, the kindness, the restraint.
He hadn't stayed because he wanted something from her.
He had stayed because he wanted her to feel safe.
That night, Jay sat by the window, knees drawn to her chest, watching the city lights flicker on one by one.
"I feel something," she whispered into the quiet.
Saying it out loud didn't make it disappear. It made it real.
Keifer hadn't told her he was leaving. And maybe that hurt more than it should have. But she realized something else, too—he hadn't left her.
He had simply gone.
And the fact that she missed him this much meant her heart had already chosen—quietly, carefully, without permission.
Jay closed her eyes and let the feeling wash over her.
Not panic.
Not regret.
Acceptance.
For the first time, she wasn't just reacting to pain or escaping loneliness.
She wanted someone.
And that someone was Keifer.