Elena’s POV

The rain hit harder the moment I stepped out from under the canopy.

Cold drops struck my hair, my shoulders, the side of my face. I kept my head down and followed the dark shape of him through the downpour, bag clutched tightly against my good side. His black shirt was already darker across the shoulders from the rain. He moved without hurry, as if the weather were simply another thing that rearranged itself around him.

He reached the passenger side of the black car first and opened the front door.

I stopped two steps away.

Sitting beside him felt too close. Too intimate for a first day,...