Chapter Fourteen: She agreed.
Two days before...
Matthew had been thinking of how to ask Daisy out for what felt like forever. Probably since the very first moment he laid eyes on her at the hospital. She had rushed in late that morning, flustered and apologetic, her scrubs slightly wrinkled but somehow still managing to look...adorable. Neat. Composed. And cute in a way that made him stop mid-sentence and forget what he was supposed to be doing.
She had this soft kind of presence—like calm in a storm—and even though she was clearly having a rough day, she smiled. And Matthew? He was done for.
They'd been talking ever since—coffee breaks in the hospital lounge, little jokes in the hallway, late-night texts that sometimes drifted beyond casual. They were friends. Comfortable. Easy. But Matthew didn't want easy.
He wanted more.
And Daisy… wasn't blind.
She knew.
She saw the way he looked at her sometimes when he thought she wasn't paying attention. Like she was art and he couldn't believe he got to see her every day. She saw how his voice softened when he said her name, how he lingered a little longer in their conversations, like he didn't want her to go.
She wasn't stupid. The man liked her. And she knew he was going to ask her out. It was only a matter of time. And when he finally did—standing near the vending machine, trying so hard to look casual but looking nervous as hell—she smiled.
"Wanna grab dinner sometime? I mean, if you're free," he said, rubbing the back of his neck like a boy in high school asking his crush to prom.
She tilted her head and gave him that little half-smile that always made him second-guess himself.
"I'll think about it," she replied, her voice light but her heart a mess.
Should she go?
She should go.
Maybe she needed to go.
Maybe a date with someone like Matthew—sweet, funny, stable—would be the perfect way to get over the one person who had no right still living in her mind.
Will.
She hadn't been able to shake him since that day in the parking lot. She'd seen him. She was sure of it. He looked the same and yet... different. Older. Sharper. Sadder. She had even known he was back in the city. Their eyes did meet, but something inside her shifted when she saw him.
And since then, she couldn't stop thinking about him. About them. The way it ended. The way it shouldn't have ended.
Maybe Matthew was her chance to move on.
Even if it didn't fix everything, maybe it would help her forget… just a little.
Even if just for one night.