Stan had been driving for perhaps ten minutes when his phone buzzed against the passenger seat.

Stan glanced over. The screen lit up with a Snapchat notification from Sophie.

At the next red light, he picked up the phone and opened it.

Sophie: [Where are you? ]

Sophie: [It’s been, like, seven hours since I left your place and I’m already going through withdrawal. This is becoming a problem. I think I need a doctor 💔]

The light turned green.

Stan set the phone back down, a small, private smile already forming on his face. He drove another block, found a quiet stretch of road, pulled over, and picked it up again.

Stan: [Withdrawing from what?]

Sophie: [YOU 😤 Obviously.]

Sophie: [Stan Harrison, you cannot pretend you don’t understand. I’ve been very clear about this ]

Sophie: [I refuse to spell it out any further. It’s embarrassing ]

Sophie: [Where are you right now?]

Stan: [Just left the hospital.]

The reply came back almost instantly.

Sophie: [WHAT?!]

Sophie: [Hospital???]

Sophie: [Stan, are you okay? What happened???]

Sophie: [Please don’t leave me on read. Tell me right now ]

Sophie: [I am sitting up.]

Sophie: [I have officially sat up.]

Sophie: [I’m putting on shoes, Stan. I swear to God, tell me something.]

A chuckle escaped him.

Stan: [I’m fine. It wasn’t for me. Long story.]

Sophie: [Stan Harrison, if you do not explain in the next sixty seconds, I am getting in my car and coming to find you. I do not care what district you’re in ]

Sophie: [Don’t test me ]

He almost laughed out loud in the empty car.

Stan: [Got pulled into something today just after I took my car to Imperium motors. Helped someone in a bad situation. She’s in critical care now, but stable. I covered her treatment. That’s all.]

Sophie: [...]

Sophie: [Stan 🤨]

Sophie: [Why do your texts always sound like the opening Chapter of some insane story? 😩]

Sophie: ["Helped someone in a bad situation."]

Sophie: ["Covered her treatment."]

Sophie: [Sir 🧐]

Sophie: [Elaborate.]

Sophie: [Who?]

Sophie: [What happened?]

Sophie: [How much trouble were you in?]

Sophie: [Were you hurt?]

Sophie: [I require details.]

Stan: [I’m not hurt. Walked away clean.]

Sophie: [That’s one out of five questions answered.]

Sophie: [I am not being deterred.]

Sophie: [I have my notebook out, by the way.]

Sophie: [I’m taking notes.]

He stared at the screen for a moment, considering how much to tell her.

Sophie was sharp. She always had been. She could read between omissions as easily as most people read words, and trying to keep her at the edges of his life had stopped working a long time ago.

In the end, he gave her the shape of the truth without any of the dangerous details.

Stan: [A woman was kidnapped from her hotel. I happened to see her being taken.]

Stan: [I followed, intervened, and got her out.]

Stan: [The men involved are in police custody now.]

Stan: [She’s in a coma from whatever they drugged her with.]

Stan: [I paid for her treatment because she doesn’t have anyone local with the authority or means to handle it.]

The typing indicator appeared.

Disappeared.

Appeared again.

Then vanished completely.

For nearly a full minute, Sophie said nothing.

Which, for Sophie, was deeply concerning.

Then:

Sophie: [Damn 😶]

Sophie: [I’m surprised.]

Sophie: [I hope she gets better soon. 🙏]

Sophie: [But you really went after a kidnapping ring? 😐]

Sophie: [By yourself?]

Sophie: [Stan.]

Sophie: [STAN.]

Sophie: [What would I have done if something had happened to you? 😭😭😭]

Stan: [I’m not that easy to kill.]

Sophie: [THIS IS NOT SOMETHING TO JOKE ABOUT 😤😭]

Sophie: [It’s your life, Stan.]

Sophie: [Please.]

Sophie: [I love you. ]

Sophie: [Consider me.]

Sophie: [What would I have done without you?]

Sophie: [Please try not to be reckless.]

Sophie: [For me.]

Sophie: [Please, Stan.]

Stan: [Okay. I’m sorry for being reckless with my life.]

Stan: [I’ll try to be more careful with it.]

Stan: [For you, ma’am.]

Sophie: [Haha ]

Sophie: [Why is that so funny when you say it like that?]

Sophie: [Stop making me laugh.]

Sophie: [I’m supposed to be lecturing you.]

Sophie: [Also, after all that, you sent me a message that just said, "Left the hospital."]

Sophie: [Like that was a complete sentence.]

Stan: [It was a complete sentence.]

Sophie: [It was a war crime is what it was.]

Sophie: [I’m going to need a moment to process all of this.]

He waited.

The dots appeared.

Disappeared.

Appeared again.

Sophie: [Okay.]

Sophie: [I have processed.]

Sophie: [I am very proud of you, Stan.]

Sophie: [And also slightly furious that you didn’t tell me while it was happening. ]

Sophie: [And also incredibly relieved that you’re okay.]

Sophie: [And also very full of love for you right now.]

Sophie: [And also a little jealous. ]

Sophie: [Don’t ask why I included that one.]

Sophie: [The heart wants what it wants.]

Stan: [Jealous?]

Sophie: [Don’t say it like that. 🙈]

Stan: [You’re jealous of a woman in a coma?]

Sophie: [STAN 😭😭😭]

Sophie: [When you put it like that, I sound like a monster. 😭]

Sophie: [I’m not jealous of her specifically.]

Sophie: [I’m jealous of the general concept of you carrying another woman to the hospital.]

Sophie: [Which is information you never actually confirmed...]

Sophie: [But which I have decided definitely happened.]

Sophie: [Because apparently that’s the kind of evening you had.]

Stan let out an actual laugh this time, brief and warm in the quiet of the car. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

Stan: [Sophie.]

Sophie: [Yes, my love?]

Stan: [You’re impossible.]

Sophie: [I know. ]

Sophie: [It’s part of the charm.]

Sophie: [You signed up for this.]

Stan: [I didn’t carry her to the hospital.]

Stan: [I called an ambulance.]

Sophie: [Oh, don’t mind me.]

Sophie: [I was just teasing you. 😌]

Stan: [Okay.]

A few seconds passed.

Then another message arrived.

Sophie: [I love you. 💕]

Sophie: [Please come over.]

Sophie: [Please Stan come over this night too.]

Back at her place, Sophie sat alone on the balcony overlooking the city. The night breeze drifted through the air, gently stirring her hair as countless lights glittered across the skyline below.

Dressed in a silk nightgown that accentuated her natural beauty, she looked down at her phone, her fingers loosely wrapped around it. The teasing and playful mood from earlier had long since faded, replaced by a swirl of emotions she couldn’t quite put into words.

Relief. Worry. Affection.

Most of all, worry.

She stared at the Snapchat chat, waiting for the next message to appear.

"Stan, please don’t play with your life like that... it hurts me."

The words slipped from her lips in a soft murmur, barely audible even to herself.

The fact that Stan had brushed off her concern with a casual joke only made it hurt more. To him, it might have been nothing worth dwelling on, but to Sophie, his life was not something to joke about.

It was precious.

The thought of anything happening to him was enough to make her chest tighten, which was why his carefree response had left a lingering ache in her heart.

Her eyes lingered on the screen as she waited for his reply. A thought echoed and remained in her mind, warm and persistent, and before she knew it, a small smile had formed on her lips as her fingers moved across the keyboard once more.

’Come to me, Stan. I miss you...’