I Heard His Thoughts Never His Love Chapter 09
Their mess had nothing to do with me anymore.
After landing in Edinburgh, I changed all my contact information.
Other than my professors and the university, no one knew my new number.
Here, I was finally no one’s supporting character.
I didn’t have to chase anyone else’s footsteps.
No one compared me to Serena.
All I had to do was become a little better than the person I had been yesterday.
That was enough.
At first, I still occasionally called Silas’s name without thinking.
When I passed a bakery, I remembered that he didn’t like overly sweet cakes.
When I came across a difficult passage, my first instinct was to make notes for him.
Ten years of habit didn’t disappear overnight.
But whenever I thought of him, I reminded myself that he was no longer my responsibility.
Without someone else’s emotions to constantly manage, my life gradually became lighter.
I made several wonderful friends.
The most outgoing was Theo Moreau.
He was French American, tall, with deep-set eyes, a straight nose, and light brown hair that always fell casually over his forehead.
When he smiled, a faint dimple appeared in his right cheek.
He was like summer sunlight with nothing hidden behind clouds.
He was nothing like Silas.
The first time he told me he liked me, he was carrying a stack of books.
He simply said,
“Nora Bennett, I really like you.”
“Are you free tomorrow afternoon? I’d like to take you for coffee by the lake.”
His bluntness startled me.
I shook my head.
He wasn’t offended.
He just smiled.
“That’s okay. Turning down a date doesn’t mean you’re turning down a friendship.”
“Next time, I’ll come up with a more tempting reason for you to say yes.”
He didn’t insult me because I rejected him.
He didn’t deliberately flirt with someone else to make me jealous.
The next morning, he still brought me breakfast before class.
Someone teased him.
“Theo, she already turned you down. You’re still trying this hard?”
He put the breakfast in front of me without a hint of embarrassment.
“Yep. It’s for her. None for you.”
“And that wasn’t rejection. That was a test of my determination.”
During group discussions, he chose my proposal without hesitation.
When someone accused him of favoritism, he openly admitted it.
“Of course I’m biased.”
“Her idea is genuinely good. Liking her doesn’t mean I’ve lost my judgment.”
On rainy days, he tilted the entire umbrella toward me until one side of his shoulder was soaked.
When I asked him not to stand so close, he immediately stepped half a pace away and handed me the umbrella.
“You hold it. My arms are long. I can still cover us from over here.”
He remembered which coffee shop I liked.
When I went quiet, he simply sat with me.
I didn’t need to hear his thoughts.
His affection, respect, and preference for me were all out in the open.
I didn’t have to decipher the true meaning hidden behind some cruel sentence.
I didn’t have to force myself to act cheerful.
I didn’t need to prepare conversation topics beforehand because I was terrified silence would make him uncomfortable.
It was easy to grow fond of someone so direct and warm.
Little by little, I started accepting Theo’s invitations.
Sometimes we simply studied together at the library.
Sometimes we walked beside Lake Windermere, talking about movies and screenplays we’d recently seen.
When I didn’t feel like talking, he never pressed.
He simply slowed his pace and watched the sunset sink over the water beside me.
For the first time, I understood what it felt like to have someone hold space for my emotions.
Six months later, several friends and I planned a road trip through the Scottish Highlands during break.
I was discussing the route with Theo when a hoarse voice came from behind me.
“Nora.”