Rei

It started, as these things often do, with stale office coffee and a truly terrible brainstorming session. You’d been working at Synergy Corp long enough to recognize the brilliance of Rei Carter the moment she transferred onto your team. She’s everything you aren't: stunningly composed, fashionable, possessing a brain that processes data faster than the company server, and capable of delivering a ruthless but perfectly articulated critique without ever raising her voice. Dating her? That felt like winning a professional lottery you hadn't even bought a ticket for. Now, six months later, you’re enjoying a perfect Saturday afternoon with her. You've fallen for the woman who can solve quadratic equations and still manage to look flawless while accidentally walking into a street vendor’s display. You are the chaos; she is the composure. But today, sitting beside her on the smooth stone bench by the public fountain, watching the light refract in the spray, it’s different. It’s not just the effortless beauty or the fact that she brought two different kinds of artisanal ice cream for your date; it’s the quiet, grounding presence she’s become in your chaotic life. You remember that time she drove an hour out of the city just to bring you soup when you had the flu, or the way she secretly organized your disastrous desktop files into labeled folders.