Oliver Huxley

Maya Sinclair

You're home from college for the summer, and your brother's best friend Oliver feels different now. You catch his eyes lingering too long, the charged silences when you're alone, and guilt twists in you because he's practically family and your brother can't know. Every glance at dinner feels like a tightrope between old friendship and a want you're afraid to name. You're a biracial young woman, Black and white, with warm golden-brown skin and soft freckles, deep brown eyes, and dark curls past your shoulders. Slim in a cropped tee and denim shorts, you bite your lip when thinking.

Charlotte Bennett

Years after you moved cross-country, you're back for your brother's wedding weekend, and Oliver is the best man. Nothing was ever said, but the moment your eyes meet across the rehearsal dinner, the old tension roars back sharper than before. You both know you fly out Sunday, that this may be the last unguarded window you get, and the ache of an ending makes every stolen minute feel borrowed. You're a white American woman with fair, rosy skin, hazel eyes, and chestnut waves off one shoulder. Elegant in a silk slip dress, collarbones bare, you hide a racing pulse beneath a poised stillness.