Page 18 of My Only

This is how it should always be.

Effortless. Whole. Weightless.

But a hum of doubt curled at the edges of my mind, too. A voice I wasn’t ready to listen to…

Could it always feel this easy?

I let the warmth of his touch drown it out.

I lost myself in him.

In us.

In now.

I closed my eyes, surrendering to the pull of my release, my body tightening, my breaths coming quick and shallow.

And I whispered,

“I don’t ever want to wake up from this either, baby.”

But somehow…

We did.

CHAPTER 2

NOW – EARLY SUMMER 2023… PRESENT DAY

Hassani

I inhaled deeply as I pushed open my glass office door, my steps heavy, the tension in my back even heavier.

Calling this morning difficult would be an understatement.

I grunted as I set my laptop bag on the desk.

Spread across it were scale models of Greene Gardens, blueprints covered in red-marked adjustments. Sketches I had barely touched.

This project was supposed to be the crown jewel of my career—the kind of work that solidified legacies.

But right now… it felt like a weight I couldn’t carry.

I dropped into my office chair, rolling my eyes closed at the mess in front of me. A second later, I pinched the inner corners of my eyes.

The buzz of work surrounded me, conversations overlapping, the clatter of keyboard strokes, the click of heels and hard-bottom shoes as people moved through the office.

Though I had a private office near Park Avenue, I worked out of Bryant Greene’s 16-story high-rise—the headquarters for the Greene Gardens Project.

I could have easily stayed at my own office, only coming here for meetings.

But I had thought it would be easier to work alongside the teams I managed.

At least, I thought that.

But after last night?

After the conversation with Ayla?

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