The call came when I wasn’t expecting it.

I was sitting at my desk, laptop open, pretending to study but really just staring at the same paragraph in my notes for the past twenty minutes. The room was quiet except for the low hum of the heater. My roommate wasn’t back yet, so it was just me, the faint street noise drifting in through the cracked window, and the half-empty mug of tea beside me that had long gone cold.

When my phone buzzed against the desk, I glanced at the screen out of habit. Jordan.

A small smile pulled at my lips before I even realized it, the same...