He just reminded me—again—that this is a transaction
His phone keeps buzzing with messages he doesn’t share
He watches everything like he’s assessing threats
Evidence for “something else is happening”:
The way he looks at me when he thinks I’m not watching
The dinner where he said “I find that first impressions matter. I’d like ours to start properly”
His voice when he said I was worth persisting for
The text at 3 AM where he said he was “remembering” what this felt like
The fact that he rearranged his entire schedule for me
The way he just said “don’t” like it hurt him to remind me
The way his hand trembles sometimes when he touches me
