You were never a stranger,

only a name I hadn't learned yet,

a voice that waited in the air for the right moment
to fold itself into mine.

We meet when we need to.
Two bodies pulled by a thread neither of us wove,
but both of us hold.
A glance that lingers half a second too long,
a word that lands heavier than it should,
the static before a storm.

We touch when we need to.
Not yet, not fully—
but the air between us crackles,
charged with something unsaid.
I keep my hands to myself,
not out of restraint,
but out of knowing.

We speak when we need to.
And you say things that shouldn't be said aloud,
things I’ve only ever heard in my own mind.
I answer with silence,
or something too careful, too distant—
because I am not yet brave.
Because fate waits for no one,
but I make it wait for me.

Still, I know.
I know.
This was never a coincidence.

Lucija Lotus Mlinarič