There was never a defining moment.
No grand confession. No kiss under flickering lights.
Just glances that lingered too long. Shared lunches. Inside jokes. A hundred little moments that stitched them together until it became impossible to pull them apart.
They began texting outside of school - memes, funny student quotes, book recommendations. Sometimes at midnight, when neither could sleep.
When Calvin's uncle died, she showed up at his house with a pie and cried with him.
When Ainsley's grandmother passed, Calvin left a copy of Anne of Green Gables on her desk with a note that read, "Kindred spirits don't end."
They weren't cheating.
Not physically.
But emotionally?
They had long since stopped being just coworkers.