WARM HEART.

The metal dart felt heavy between Benny's fingertips as he focused on the bullseye from his position. He was usually quite good at this; playing darts was a common pastime for him. Sure, he had a bit of an advantage given his reach, but Benny once spent a full twelve hours testing those limits. At 22, he never backed down from a challenge.

However, tonight wasn't about reliving any particular memories. Although one memory lingered in his mind, he simply wanted to keep himself occupied until his friend arrived. He let out a sigh, contemplating whether to throw the dart. Rolling his shoulders back, he decided he wouldn’t let a bittersweet memory taint his enjoyment of the game.

He tossed the dart, but as it flew through the air, someone walked right into its path. Benny winced, expecting the worst—until it landed perfectly in her cup. Relief washed over him when he realized it was Val. He approached her with an easy grin. "Holy shit, I almost gave you a cheek piercing," he joked, poking her cheek playfully. "Boop."

He smiled and took her cup, the dart sticking out of it. "You're kidding, right? I have to buy you one." He shook his head, then took a drink from her cup. Benny grimaces, the taste of metal tainting his tongue. "Yeah, see? This one is no good." He nodded toward the bar. "C’mon."

Eyes widening in surprise, she watched him take a sip from her ruined drink, her nose wrinkling at his grimace. “Gracias, Capitán Obvio. Of course it's no good, you spiked it with hardware.” She quickly grabbed the ruined beverage back, lest he try to take another sip and placed it down on the nearest table with finality. Even when she was giving him a hard time, Val couldn’t help but look out for Benny. She was protective in that big-sister way that slipped through no matter how much she teased.

As she followed him towards the bar, she stuck close, making sure she could hear him over the noisy din. When they finally got a space, she quickly leaned against the bar so she could look him over as they waited on a bartender to take their orders. It had been a while since they'd caught up. "So, what's new with you, dart boy?"

Finding a usual niche inside amidst the bar games, Levi found himself competing in an ongoing dart match. While intently surveying his next throw in rotation, a lone game piece from another player ended up flying awry, nowhere near the board. "— Val!' Levi called out upon the recognition of where and who it landed near. "Now my throws aren't that terrible." A faint smirk touched his lips, immediately approaching his familiar neighbor's side. "But I'd bet one of them over there tried that on purpose." A nod motioned back towards his opponents. Strange attempt at a move though. "Where've you been, by the way? Long time no see."

Her gaze softened a little as she took him in, her teasing tone giving way to a warm smile. “I'm so glad I ran into you here, it's been ages!!" she gushed, giving his arm a friendly squeeze. "Work's just been keeping me busy, I keep taking on more and more classes at the rec." Waving the topic of conversation away, she leaned in slightly closer, as if to make sure she didn’t miss anything he said in the noisy bar. "But onto more important things! I hear someone has a pretty big update for me." She wiggled her brows expectantly up at him. Since her conversation with Nia at the Spring Fling, Val had been dying to catch up with Levi.

"You're.. you're with him?" She finally looked down at Valentina, awkwardly moving out of the hug and taking a step back. Looking back to Alex through the windscreen, she could feel everything bubbling under the surface. She really should've just turned around, got in her car and driven off to let Alex explain the situation, but the thread had finally snapped.

Her jaw tensed and she looked back to Valentina. "Woman to woman, if he starts telling you he's working late, don't believe him, he'll probably turn up a year later with another secret baby." She wasn't angry with Valentina in the slightest, if anything, she felt bad for her, but her rationality seemed to be another thing that had disappeared. "Give him thirty seconds and he'll probably jump out of the car." She could feel her hands shaking with the fury coursing through her body. "It'll be right under your nose as well, probably someone he works with, that tends to be his MO."

Her eyes moved back to her ex-husband and in that moment, all she wanted was to throw something at his car. "Or are you a changed man now, Alex? A wedding ring didn't help you to keep your pants zipped up, so does Valentina need to worry?" Her voice was raised ever so slightly, hopefully enough for him to hear. For the first time that she remembered in her life, she didn't care about making a scene. Jiya Santa had cracked.

“Jiya, enough,” he said, low, deliberate. “I hear what you’re saying. I know why you’re saying it. But that’s not who I am anymore.” He took a careful step closer, making his presence felt without crowding her. “I made mistakes, terrible mistakes. But I owned them. I’ve changed. I’m not that man.”

He let his gaze hold hers, steady and unflinching. “I didn’t want you to see this, see us. Not like this. Not seeing me with her, not hearing… this. I thought you'd already left.” His words hung in the air, heavy but measured, letting the weight of their shared history press between them. “But please. Please stop before you say something you’ll regret.”

Beneath the calm cadence, his chest throbbed with guilt and fear, both barely contained. But he wouldn’t show it. Every line, every controlled breath, was meant to signal that he was present, accountable, and despite the chaos he felt inside: unshakable. He refused to let this break him, even if every instinct screamed that he deserved it.

@valentincflores & @jiya-santa

She stood frozen, shock rooting her in place as Jiya’s outburst shattered what had been a happy morning, dousing it in ice-cold dread. With each accusation, Val felt herself shrink inward. But one phrase rang louder than all the rest—wedding ring.

Had Alex cheated on his wife? Was Emmy the product of him stepping out of his marriage?

Her breathing grew shallower, each inhale tighter than the last, as one of her biggest fears, her worst trauma, seemed to be hurled at the man she... well, the man she damn near loved.

She didn't hear the footsteps echoing across the pavement behind her, only when she saw Alex's tight frame approaching Jiya, did Val feel herself relax just a tiny bit. Surely, Alex would vehemently deny these horrible claims. He'd prove they were false and Val had nothing to worry about. Instead she was met with 'that's not who I am anymore,' and Val's world came crashing down. He wasn't denying it. He was admitting he cheated.

Her eyes, suddenly glossy with moisture she desperately tried to keep at bay, flew to Alex, watching him try to diffuse the situation. But what was there to diffuse at this point? If it was all true? And why was he trying to keep Jiya from saying more? Was there more? Was there something worse?

Without even intending to do so, she found herself quietly asking, "Wait, so it's true?" She didn't know if she was asking Jiya or Alex at this point, all knew was that she was hoping, aching for someone to tell her this was all a big mistake. @jiya-santa

"Wait!" Summer's voice could be heard, even though she was talking to no one in particular—maybe one of the many voices in her head?—and reaching her hand out in a stopping motion. "This. Is. Perfect." It was not a squeal—not even a shriek if you think about it—but it was definitely there. There was little she loved more than perusing trinkets at garage sales or antique shops, this one being the former. She would never understand what would bring someone to put their shit on display for a whole neighborhood to see, but boy, she was glad they did it. She was meant to be there—with her hair in a messy bun, her cuttoff shorts, and the graphic tee that said podcast people are people too ( one of the many dead air merch that had gone poof in her shop ). She was meant to be there, and find that precious tiny doll that looked like it had seen better times. "Don't you think this looks haunted? It definitely looks haunted, right?" The doll was shoved in her unsuspecting victim's face. Summer was never good at personal boundaries, and it showed.

As a pathetic looking doll was shoved in her face, Val froze in her tracks. She gave the poor thing a once over, before meeting Summer's gaze, a serious expression on her face. "It's definitely giving haunted vibes." She nodded her head as if that sealed the deal and made their assumption fact. Glancing around to check out the sale around them, her eyes zeroed in on the couple sitting at the top of the driveway in camping chairs as they kept an eye on things. It seemed like they were the ones who lived here. "Think there's a story there? Something sketchy happened to the kid who the doll belonged to?" Val was nothing if not notorious for letting her imagination run rampant.

She couldn't care less that she wasn't very nice at the moment, but Livia was here to earn money and not to cancel a class. And not even Valentina Flores was going to stop her at that.

"I am pretty sure you are the desperate one here." She put away her phone and moved back to the yoga mat that she had been warming up at. It was there that she took a seat and continued her stretching exercises to warm up. Nope, she wasn't leaving.

"Don't you need to check with the main desk where the mistake is? Because you know... It turns out that you only want to see what you want clearly."

“You really think I’d show up without checking? Without confirming?” Reaching into her bag, Val took out her phone, and pulled up a text conversation between her and the rec center's operation's manager, Meiling, where Val was confirming her schedule for the week, including this session in this studio. Her smile turned razor-edged as she held the phone up for Livia to see. “Please. I don’t roll out of bed for anything less than verified facts and a chai latte.”

She didn’t move just yet, folding her arms as she studied Livia, eyes narrowed thoughtfully. “Sounds like someone messed up somewhere, but it wasn't me.”

After a beat, Val rolled her eyes. Someone had to be the bigger person here and start offering practical suggestions. “Look, I’m not trying to derail your class. Maybe we both go check with the desk before we start throwing around accusations and assuming sabotage.”

She reached over and gave Nia’s hand a squeeze, her grin softening into something that held all the gratitude she couldn’t quite put into words. “Seriously, thank you. It truly means so much.”

Then, at the mention of their bookish chats, Val perked up. "¡Dios mío! Yes—we’re way overdue. And you’re right, Benny will never quite appreciate the sacred magic of being thrown around by a rugged man in plaid with questionable communication skills and a tragic backstory."

“And we stan a man who worships his woman,” Val practically swooned, wiggling her brows in Nia’s direction with a dramatic flourish. “But as he should! Your ego deserves to be fluffed and fanned daily, Nia Bailey."

As the conversation shifted, Val couldn’t fight the stupidly wide grin that tugged at her lips. It bubbled up from somewhere deep, the kind of smile you wear when your heart is too full to keep it contained.

“We started off as friends with benefits,” she admitted, her tone equal parts amused and exasperated. “And then—finally, after way too long—we both realized we wanted more. We had just been too afraid of screwing things up, of second guessing each other's feelings.”

She hadn't really expected to stay in town for this long, but with the feeling that there was still unfinished business with Alex, and with herself, Jiya had found herself in a short term rental and unwillingness to return to New York. With that came frequent visits to Valentina's yoga classes and taking her up on a few visits to the park where they were able to practice in nature, with Jiya putting her feet in the grass for more than five minutes for the first time in a long time.

As the class waited for their instructor to arrive, Jiya quickly smoothed out her workout top. She might be about to get hot and sweaty with yoga, but there was no chance anyone would see her not perfectly presentable to start with. Reaching up to re-tie her hair, she could only sigh as the elastic snapped when she tried to twist it. "If Valentina arrives, can you tell her I'll be just a second, I need to go and grab a hair tie from my car." She asked someone else waiting and as they nodded, Jiya grabbed her bag and headed out to her car. Yet another addition to her life in the small town.

It didn't take her long to find another hair tie in the glove box of her car and after fixing her hair into a high ponytail, Jiya locked the car and made her way back across the parking lot. As she neared the entrance, Jiya smiled as she saw the instructor, raising one hand in a wave until she clocked who Valentina was with. Her body froze as she spotted Alex, her face dropping and she was pretty sure, for a few seconds at least, she stopped breathing. She wanted to scream. If she was honest, she wanted to throw things. But instead, she was frozen, just watching them in silence as, for now, she went unnoticed.

He leaned across the console and pressed a kiss to her temple. “You’ve got this. Just don’t judge anyone too hard for forgetting how to breathe.”

Alex stayed in the driver’s seat a moment longer, watching her stride toward the building with that easy confidence that still floored him. She glanced back once and he gave her a mock salute, ready to head out, but then something made him freeze.

A familiar figure had just reemerged from the far side of the parking lot. Ponytail. Workout clothes. The curve of her shoulders he still recognized instinctively. Jiya.

His stomach tightened.

He blinked once, hard, half-convinced he was seeing things. But no, it was her, and she was walking toward the very class Val was about to teach.

That didn’t make sense. Jiya was supposed to be gone. They’d talked. He'd assumed she was heading back to New York, that whatever lingering thread was keeping her in Briar Ridge had finally unraveled. He hadn’t pushed. It wasn’t his place anymore. And truthfully, he thought it might’ve been better for both of them if she left.

So why the hell was she here?

She hadn't seen him yet but he recognized the moment she saw Val. The way her steps slowed. The flicker of something like disappointment as her gaze followed the path Val had just walked, and found him at the end of it.

His jaw flexed. Dumbfounded, Alex just sat there, heart starting to pound, as he watched the quiet fuse that had just been lit in front of him.

“Well,” he muttered under his breath, leaning back in the seat. “Shit.”

Little did she know.

Grinning from ear to ear, she rolled her eyes at his joke and gave him a playful swat before finally stepping out of the car. Alex just made her too happy—she couldn’t even pretend to be annoyed by his dad-tier jokes. As she turned back toward the rec center, her face lit up even more at the sight of Jiya.

"Jiya, hi!" she called as she walked towards the student turned friend. Feeling a little extra... well, happy, Val couldn't help but throw her arms around Jiya when she approached, giving her a hug. "Are you ready for this? Because I'm super excited There's a couple moves I have planned that I think you're going to kick booty at!" @jiya-santa