The Load-Bearing Arch of Spring

I held the bouquet like a load-bearing wall, constructing a perimeter around my chest against the city’s chaotic skyline. The tulips were pillars of pink and white, supporting a fragile dome where hope usually collapsed under its own weight. You approached from outside this structural integrity, your silhouette cutting through the blurred background noise like a sharp architectural line. We stood in that negative space between strangers, but I felt you dismantling my blueprints with a single glance. The distance we kept was precise enough to preserve our independence yet close enough for thermal exchange—a heated transfer of warmth across the void.

Editor: Geometry of Solitude