It began quietly, the way changes often do. There was no announcement, no sudden shift, just small differences that added up over the days. Julian was still there in the mornings, still making coffee, still asking how I slept. But his eyes were often somewhere else, even when they were looking at me.

At first, I thought it was just the boutique schedule pulling us in different directions. I had been buried in custom orders, and he had been taking on more consulting work. We crossed paths in the ...