It is crazy how the world moves faster than imagined. It's been a week and two days since the last time Thalma hung out with Noah.
Thalma noticed it in the way mornings unfolded without urgency, in how neighbors greeted one another like time was something they had plenty of. Even the air felt warmer here, carrying laughter, language, and stories she didn't fully understand but somehow felt connected to.
She liked that no one rushed her.
She liked that people asked how she was and waited for the answer.
Sometimes, while walking beside her mother or listening to her sister chatter endlessly about nothing and everything, Thalma wondered what her life would have been like if this place had been constant instead of temporary.
She felt lighter here.
Seen.
Almost whole.
And that scared her.
Because she knew she was leaving.
England hovered quietly in the background of her thoughts: unread emails, postponed packing, a return ticket she refused to open. The idea of going back felt heavier now, like stepping out of warmth into something colder, sharper.
She wasn't sure when Morocco had begun to feel like something she would miss.
She only knew it already did.
***
Tim didn't like quiet nights anymore.
They made him think.
So when a friend dragged him out :loud music, unfamiliar faces, easy laughter ; he didn't resist. He let himself be carried by the noise, by conversations that meant nothing, by smiles that asked for nothing deeper than the moment.
That's how he met her.
She laughed easily. Touched his arm when she spoke. Didn't ask questions he didn't want to answer.
It was simple.
Temporary.
Exactly what he told himself he needed.
Tim didn't plan for it to happen.
One moment they were talking over loud music, her laughter brushing against his skin, and the next her fingers were hooked into the collar of his shirt, pulling him closer. The kiss was unthinking, urgent, fueled more by need than intention.
His hands found her waist instinctively. Hers slid beneath the hem of his jacket. The world narrowed to heat, breath, and the quiet relief of not having to explain himself.
They stumbled into the room together, laughter dissolving into silence, mouths meeting again with less hesitation this time. Tim shut his eyes, letting the moment take over, letting sensation replace thought.
Later, when the room was dark and the noise had faded, Tim lay staring at the ceiling, her breathing steady beside him.
The emptiness crept in slowly.
He reached for his phone without knowing why, then stopped.
Thalma's name hovered at the edge of his thoughts.
He turned away instead.
To be continued...