For three heartbeats, the world narrowed to that point of contact: palm against palm, the slight roughness of his skin, the way his thumb instinctively pressed against her knuckles. Then the train righted itself. A collective sigh rippled through the carriage.

They had been commuting together for eight months without a single word. She knew the way he drank his coffee—black, two careful sips before setting the cup down. He knew the way she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear when she reached a tense chapter. But they were strangers, bound by unspoken rules of English train etiquette.

The 7:42 to Paddington was its usual self: a lukewarm capsule of silence, broken only by the rustle of newspaper pages and the tinny leak of someone’s forgotten earbud. Emma slid into her usual seat, third from the back, and pulled out her paperback. She never looked up when the man sat down opposite her. He was tall, with rain-speckled glasses and the quiet air of someone who also took the same train every day.

She nodded, breathless. Neither let go.

Emma smiled. “I’ll be there.”

They didn’t speak for the rest of the ride. But when the train pulled into Paddington, Leo stood aside to let her off first. At the ticket gates, he touched her elbow—just a brush, a question.