Tessa

The sun was high and golden, the sky a postcard-perfect blue.
Moose barreled across the grass like an ungainly rocket, ears flapping and tail spinning out of control.

Tessa laughed so hard she had to sit down on the checkered picnic blanket before she fell over.

Graham dropped down beside her with a huff, the wicker basket thumping between them.

“I still think he’s part horse,” he muttered, watching Moose attempt to chase a butterfly three sizes too small for him.

Tessa wiped tears from her eyes.

“You love him,” she said sweetly.

Graham rolled his eyes, but the corner of his mouth twitched.

“Stockholm syndrome,” he said.
But he reached out anyway, adjusting the strap of Moose’s harness from a distance like it was second nature.

Tessa leaned her head on his shoulder.

The city buzzed faintly in the background, but here — tucked into their little corner of the park, with a spread of sandwiches and fruit between them — it felt like the world had finally slowed down.

They’d needed this.
The chance to just be.

No exhibitions.
No work deadlines.
No weird misunderstandings.

Just them.

---

Graham

He could feel her smiling against his shoulder.

God help him, he was so far gone it was laughable.

He’d spent his whole life thinking love had to be a checklist — neat, orderly, predictable.

Then Tessa Morgan had crashed into him, camera in hand and dog at her side, and turned everything into color and chaos and home.

Graham leaned down and kissed her hair.

She tilted her face up to him, sunlight caught in her eyes, and he kissed her properly — soft and slow and easy.

When they broke apart, she grinned.

“So,” she said, plucking a grape from the bowl, “what do you think? Successful first date?”

Graham considered it seriously.

“You haven’t broken anything yet,” he deadpanned.

“Yet,” she agreed solemnly, tossing a grape at his head.

He caught it midair with a smirk.

Tessa laughed again — bright, unfiltered, the kind of sound that made every grumpy part of him soften.

He couldn’t help it — he reached over, twining their fingers together on the blanket.

Moose came crashing back toward them then, nearly knocking over the basket in his excitement.

Graham barely caught the juice bottle in time.

Tessa just shook her head, giggling.

“You’re doomed,” she said lovingly.

He squeezed her hand.

“Wouldn’t have it any other way.”

And under the spring sun, surrounded by all the messy, beautiful things he never knew he needed —

Graham Carter realized he was exactly where he was meant to be.

With Tessa Morgan.

Perfectly mismatched.

Perfectly right.