Chapter 145

• During their weekly friend group brunch at Maple Street Café, Marcus first noticed something different about Haven and Alexis. Where once tension crackled between them like static electricity, there now exists an effortless comfort that seems to gently soften the air around their familiar cornera.
• Haven was genuinely engaged this time as he listened to Alexis talk about her latest business project. His dark eyes were focused on her animated features as she described the interplay of trends and charts she had discovered in her research. When she pulled out her phone to display the charts, he leaned in closely, his shoulder gently brushing against hers, and highlighted impressive details.
• "The way you caught everything," he said, "with the charts looking like it's going so perfect into the graphs, that's incredible, Lex."