The offer lingered like the echo of a question that wouldn't stop asking itself.
Paris.
Fame.
Validation.
Control.
Daniel paced the apartment that afternoon while Amelia stood at her easel, working silently on a new piece. Her presence was grounding—until he realized he was looking to her too much. Like her silence might decide something he hadn't said aloud.
He finally broke it.
"If I say yes," he said, "what happens to this?"
Amelia didn't stop painting. "What do you think happens?"
"That it changes."
"Everything changes, Daniel."
He swallowed. "You mean you're okay with me going?"
She set her brush down, turned to face him. Her eyes were calm, but unwavering. "I'm okay with you choosing. Not out of fear. Not out of guilt. Just... clarity."
He hated that she made it sound so simple when it wasn't.
Paris meant facing the same world that had once reduced him to flesh and symmetry. But staying—staying meant risking comfort, routine, the dull ache of stagnation. He wanted more. But more of what?
Later that evening, Amelia entered his studio for the first time. Until now, his space had been mostly private—more sketches than sculptures, more concept than completion. She walked around slowly, studying the quiet chaos of his mind on paper.
She stopped at one particular drawing—her. But not posed. Not curated. Just Amelia—laughing, hair tied back, hands dirty with paint.
"This is how you see me?" she whispered.
He nodded. "Not just how. When. That day you cursed at your canvas and then laughed so hard you spilled coffee on your foot."
She laughed again, right now, because she remembered.
And then her voice went soft. "You don't have to go to Paris to be seen, Daniel. You already are. Here. By me."
He walked toward her slowly. "But what if I need to prove something—to myself?"
"Then go," she said, placing a hand on his chest. "But don't do it to escape what's growing here. Go if you want to carry it with you."
Their eyes held.
She wasn't asking him to stay.
She was asking him to trust her enough to leave.
And still come back.
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