The friendship had a texture before it had a feeling. You knew how he took his chai, which jokes landed and which ones he'd pretend to laugh at, the exact pause before he said something he'd been thinking about for three days. You knew him the way you know a room you've lived in, without looking.
Then something shifted. Maybe it was one evening that ran too long, or a phone call that went quiet in a way phone calls between friends don't usually go quiet. You didn't decide to fall in love. You just looked up one day and realised you already had.
