Jason woke before his alarm.
For a few seconds he lay still, staring at the unfamiliar hotel ceiling while the dream lingered in fragments. Wind. The gray house. The woman in the blue dress.
The ribbon.
He sat up and rubbed his face, trying to shake the images loose. Dreams were just dreams. His brain replaying things from the day before.
That had to be it.
By the time he showered, dressed, and headed out to his first hospital visit, he had mostly convinced himself of that.
The morning moved the way his workdays always did.
Parking garages.
Elevators that smelled faintly like disinfectant.
Polite conversations with administrators who were half-listening while scanning emails on their phones.
Jason demonstrated equipment, answered questions, and made the usual jokes about how nobody ever cared about surgical robotics until something broke.
He knew the routine so well he could do most of it without thinking.
Which was the problem.
His brain had too much space to wander.
Several times the image of the beach slipped back into his thoughts.
And Hannah.
He remembered the way she had filled in the detail about the ribbon. The strange pause when their hands brushed the night before.
By the time noon rolled around, Jason realized he hadn’t stopped thinking about her.
He gave up pretending otherwise.
There was a small lunch place tucked off a side street a few blocks from the hospital. Nothing fancy, just sandwiches and soup, but he liked it because it was quiet and rarely crowded.
He stepped inside and claimed a small table near the window.
After a moment he pulled out his phone.
Hannah’s contact stared back at him.
Jason typed before he could overthink it.
Jason:
How’s the day going?
He hesitated, then added another line.
Did you sleep okay?
He set the phone down on the table and leaned back, trying to act like he wasn’t waiting for the screen to light up.
A few minutes passed.
Then the phone buzzed.
He picked it up.
Hannah:
Day’s fine. Lots of meetings.
And yes, I slept well.
Jason stared at the screen.
That was… normal.
Completely normal.
Which somehow made it harder to figure out what to say next.
He opened the keyboard.
Closed it again.
What was he supposed to ask? Did you dream about a beach and an old house too?
Jason rubbed the back of his neck and stared at the phone like it might offer a suggestion.
Across the restaurant, the door opened and someone stepped inside.
Jason barely noticed at first.
He was still looking at the blinking cursor on his screen.
Then he heard a familiar voice.
“Hi. Could I get the turkey sandwich? And a lemonade?”
Jason froze.
He looked up slowly.
Hannah stood at the counter with her back partially turned, pulling out her wallet while the cashier rang up her order.
For a second Jason wondered if his brain was playing another trick on him.
But then she laughed softly at something the cashier said, and the sound snapped the moment into focus.
Jason stood so quickly his chair scraped against the floor.
“Hannah?”
His voice carried across the small restaurant.
She turned immediately.
The surprise on her face mirrored his exactly.
“Jason?”
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