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I stare at my guitar, jaw tight, thumb brushing a dent in the fretboard. “I saw her again.”

The room stills. Even Theo stops.

“What?” Luca’s voice is lower now, that steady tone he gets when something matters.

“A few days ago,” I nod, slow and deliberate. “South Havens A&E. Cut my hand. She was my nurse.”

There’s a beat of stunned silence.

“You’re joking ?” Ryder says, blinking.

“Nope.”

“She treated you?” Theo’s already halfway to grinning. “Like, patched-you-up treated you?”

“She did more damage than the beer bottle,” I mutter, rubbing the back of my neck.

Luca’s watching me now, head tilted, guitar quiet on his lap. “What was it like?”

I blow out a breath. “Like being punched in the chest. Same smile. Same eyes. Same voice. Except, I don’t know. Different.”

“She say anything?”

I nod. “Not really. She looked like she wanted to bolt the second she saw me.”

Ryder cocks his head. “Did you ask her why she left?”

I hesitate. “Said it was just a moment. That we couldn’t ask for more than it was willing to give.”

Theo whistles. “Cold.”

That ache rises in my chest again. I reach for my guitar case and flip open the side pocket I never touch. Not for gear. Not for picks.

The note’s still there. Folded and creased, edges soft with time, but I know every word by heart. Even after all this time, I never threw it away.

My fingers hover over it before I lift it free, thumb smoothing the worn fold, once, then again. “She left me this. Last day of the festival.”

No one speaks. No jokes. No jabs. Just quiet.

“We woke up together the morning of our last day. Sun burning a hole through that shit old tent of hers. She was still there. Warm. Real. I thought…”

I pause. Swallow. “Doesn’t matter. We were packing up later. I opened my case and found it. Folded under my picks like she knew exactly where I’d look.”

Another beat. My grip on the paper tightens. “I must’ve read it a hundred times that week. A thousand since.”

Kieran,

I don’t know how to say goodbye to you, so I won’t. But I have to go.

This past week has been everything. More than I ever expected it to be, and I will never forget you.

You’ll always be my rockstar. The guy with the music in his veins and the fire in his eyes. The one who made me believe, even if just for a little while, that the world could slow down.

Maybe one day, when the universe is feeling kind, our paths will cross again.

Until then… play something for me.

Yours for the week, Ells. x

I stare at the floor, the paper soft in my hands, edges worn from years of rereading. My throat goes tight.

“I didn’t even get her last name,” I groan. “She just… vanished.”

Saying it out loud scrapes something raw. Like peeling back a layer I’d convinced myself had healed over.

Theo exhales, low and slow. “That’s brutal.”

“She wrecked me,” I admit. “Not because of what we were, but because of what we never got to be.”

Ryder leans forward, voice softer now. “And now she’s back.”

“Yeah.”

“And you’re still hung up on her.”

I don’t respond. I don’t need to.

The silence that follows is thick enough to wade through. No jabs. No laughter. Just the hum of the studio and Theo’s drumstick clattering off the edge of the table.

Luca finally speaks, voice level. “So? What are you gonna do about it?”

I rub a hand down my face. “I don’t know.”

Ryder groans, tipping his head back dramatically. “Seriously? The universe hands you a literal plot twist and you’re just gonna mope?”

Theo adds, “You had one job. Get her number.”

I shake my head. “It’s not that simple.”

Ryder throws his hands up. “It’s never that simple with you.”

“Because I don’t want to fuck it up again,” I say, sharper than I mean to. “Because if I do this wrong, I don’t think I could handle her her walking away twice.”

The room quiets, and I rest my elbows on my knees, pressing my palms together like I’m holding something fragile.

“She’s in South Havens,” Ryder says, tapping his lip. “You’ve got a name, a hospital… that’s more than a breadcrumb. That’s a trail.”

Luca adds, “And we’ve got a set in the city at the weekend. Maybe it’s more than coincidence.”

I let out a shaky breath. “What am I supposed to do? Show up at her job like some lost puppy with a song in my back pocket?”

Theo shrugs. “Worked for you with that intern at Rebel Radio.”

I glance at my guitar again, still resting against the chair. “What if she’s not the same girl?”

“What if you’re not the same guy?” Luca counters.

The conversation slowly drifts. Theo paces. Ryder’s back to tapping keys. Luca tunes his strings like he’s turning over a thought in his head.

Eventually, Ryder hits a sequence that makes Theo stop and nod. Just like that, they slip into it. A rhythm. A groove. Years of chemistry built in moments like these.

But I don’t move.

My hands hover near the strings. My brain tries to summon words, but nothing comes. Because I’m still there. Still in that hospital room. Still watching her walk away in slow motion.

The pressure from the label, the looming gig, the fans waiting for something new. It all fades into background noise.

All I can think about is her.