Thea cancelled our Saturday group study session twelve minutes before it began. Her message blamed a residency portfolio deadline, which was real enough that I accepted it without searching for another explanation. The timing still followed our rooftop encounter closely enough to remain inside my attention.
{Thea: I need the studio today. Please do not rearrange anything for me.}
{Kofi: Understood. Send the archive questions whenever you want them checked.}
{Thea: Thank you. Not today.}
Nina read the exchange only because I showed her after Thea's name returned to my thoughts twice. She sat beside me inside the library café, editing market interviews while her untouched pastry occupied half my notebook.
"Do not chase her," Nina said, returning my phone without offering an explanation she could not verify.
"I was not planning to," I replied, though opening the chat three times weakened that claim.
