One night with the Heir

elle

like they were closing in, and the memories of Sam's infectious laugh echoed in my head-the way he'd get

tered everything. Two months since my little brother'

the cab driver, my voice bare

inting the sky in violent shades of orange and crimson. It should have been beautiful. Instea

that was just the tears I couldn't seem to stop anymore. I found a piece of weathered driftwood away from the scat

rhythm. Like breathing. Like livin

playing on my phone - A thousand years by Jada Facer - that I

if I

quite approaching, giving me space to refuse - suggested he understood the fragility of someone seeking solitu

e driftwood. "You look like

horizon. For several minutes, we sat in comfortable silence, two stran

hadn't talked about Sam to anyone except the grief coun

d me. Then: "I'm sorry. That's..." He shook his

understanding-made me look at him mor

it slip through his fingers. I noticed his hands-strong bu

campus, in crowds. For just a second, my hear

" he said gently. "It's trying to protect u

the way he held himself. "You talk li

my mum sixteen years ag

ing the same type of wound. It felt like more than coincidence; it f

ground and scribbling something in the sand,

ck. "Something must have brou

ded, his voice fi

*

s and distant traffic. I should have felt afraid, alone with a

aid, even though going back mean

ward his car. "I've got some in my car, and ho

elf-pity. But more than that, I felt this connection because he had passed through what I was battli

ing and brushing sand from his jean

shirt against him, showing how fit he was. Bu

rn parental lecture about stranger danger scream

l distance, or how he hadn't tried t

of being afraid when being

myself up from the driftwood, and we both star

d was the type of car

from another world-sleek, aggressive, expensive

worlds-me, a struggling college student, and him, someone who cou

it," I b

conscious. "Not exa

d of tech billion

essed the key fob as he opened the passenger

ter-soft leather interior and the dash

ing in?"

I realized I'd

ibly soft and smelled like expensive cologne and somet

f thinking that for the first time i

ybe this stranger with kind eyes was exactly the