Ava's POV
He pulled me into Baker's Corner, the one with the brick walls and the heater that was always too hot. He held the door open for me, the black umbrella shook water everywhere.
The barista barely looked up. "The usual, Leo?"
"Two blacks. One extra hot," Leo said.
I stared at him. "How do you know how I take my coffee?"
He shrugged, sliding into the booth across from me. "You order it every Thursday before Business Law. Black, extra hot, no room."
My blazer was ruined, my hair was dripping onto the table.
"You come here a lot?" I asked.
"Yeah... I mean, I come here when I don't want to be in class," he said.
"Oh." I muttered.
He slid a napkin toward me. I took it and tried to dry my hair.
"Thanks for the umbrella."
He nodded. "You looked like you needed someone to stay."
My throat got tight. Our coffees came and for ten minutes, I forgot about my father. About him telling me I was emotional. About Ethan.
I was warm. The cafe was buzzing low, rain hitting the windows. My dad would be furious if he knew I was in a cafe with a guy instead of filing those dead cases. But I didn't care. I loved the atmosphere here.
Then Leo looked toward the window. "You left your bag on the steps."
My heart dropped. "No, it's—"
He was already gone, out into the rain with the umbrella. I watched him through the window. He jogged to the library steps.
My bag was still there. My memo was sticking out of it, four nights of work bleeding in the rain.
I thought he was going to open it. He didn't. He just zipped the bag shut, tucked it under his arm so the rain wouldn't hit it, and came back.
"Here." He dropped it on the floor next to our booth.
"Thanks," I said, pulling the damp, ink-smeared pages out just to check. The name LEONARDO VANCE was smeared but still there. I tucked them back in, glad he hadn't tried to read them or make it weird. I zipped it shut and was officially done with work for the night.
When I looked back up, Leo was already watching me, one arm draped over the back of the leather booth.
"So," he said, leaning in a little. "What does Columbia star student do when she's not sitting on wet steps in the rain?"
I blinked. "Star student? I sit in the back row."
"You sit in the back and answer every single question like you wrote the damn textbook," he said with a little smirk. "I'm serious, Ava. What do you actually do for fun? Or do you just memorize case law 24/7?"
A real laugh slipped out of me this time.
"Is it that obvious?" I said.
"A little," he said, taking a sip of his coffee. "You look like someone who hasn't taken a day off since high school."
"I have hobbies," I protested, wrapping both hands around my mug.
"Name three. And reading court briefs doesn't count."
I opened my mouth to prove him wrong, and then... nothing. For three years it had been studying, interning, trying to make my dad notice.
"Okay, fine," I sighed. "I used to draw. Like, a lot. Just sketches of the city. Buildings and stuff."
"Used to?" He caught that right away. "What happened?"
"Time, mostly. Law school happened," I said. I stopped myself from bringing up my dad again.
He didn't push. He just nodded. "You should start again. You look like you could use an escape."
"Maybe," I whispered. "What about you? All you do in class is sit there and leave the second it ends."
"That's because I have a strict rule against hanging around campus," he said, casual. "Unless I find a girl freezing to death on the library steps."
My stomach flipped.
"Lucky me," I said quietly.
"Lucky me," he said back. "Drink your coffee, Ava. It's getting cold."
We finished slow. When we stood to leave, the rain had turned to drizzle.
"I'll walk you," he said, like it wasn't a question. He held the umbrella over both of us.
“You don’t live on campus, right?” I asked.
“Nah. I have a place downtown. Too noisy here,” he said, holding the umbrella more over me than him. “But I like walking this side at night. It’s quieter.”
“Downtown? So you walked all the way here just to sit on wet steps with me?”
“I was already around,” he said, too quickly. Then he smiled. “Okay fine, I saw you from Baker’s window. You looked like you were about to catch a cold out of stubbornness.”
I laughed. “I was not being stubborn.”
“You were. Full blazer, no umbrella, sitting in the rain like it was a personality test.”
That made me laugh for real, and some of the tightness in my chest loosened.
“I had a bad day,” I said quietly.
“I know,” he said. His voice was softer now. “You don’t have to explain it. Some days are just heavy. Doesn’t mean tomorrow will be.”
I looked up at him. He wasn’t looking at me like I was a problem to fix. Just like I was a person.
“For what it’s worth,” he added, “your dad’s wrong. That memo wasn’t emotional. It was smart.”
I looked at him suspiciously. “ Wait— Why’d you read that? It’s confidential.” I frowned.
“I didn’t read it.”
“ Then how did you know it’s smart?”
He didn’t even blink.
“Because you wrote it, Ava Cole. Of course it’s smart.” He said.
I stared at him for a second, then I couldn’t help it—I laughed.
Whitman dorm was only two blocks from Baker's. Campus was quiet and wet, lights reflecting on the pavement.
"This is me," I said at the steps. My building was dark. My roommate was still gone for Thanksgiving.
"You good? Your roommate still gone?"
"Yeah. But I'll be okay," I said, and for the first time today, I actually meant it.
He looked at me for a second, his scarf still around my neck.
"Get some sleep, Ava. And actually redo that memo tomorrow. Not tonight."
"I will," I said.
He waited until I was inside the lobby doors before he walked away.