It was that time of the afternoon
when the sun is not angry anymore.
A little soft. A little golden.
The kind of light that makes everything look like a memory
even before it becomes one.

She came in her college clothes.
Simple. Comfortable. Hers.
And that was enough.
That was more than enough.

We got into an auto together
the city moving around us,
people going somewhere,
and we were going somewhere too.
Not in a hurry.
Just going.

The street we walked on
was nothing special.
Just a street.
But she was on it.
So it became something.

We talked.
We laughed a little.
We walked the way people walk
when they don't want to reach anywhere too soon.

Then the bakery.
Small shop, glass counter,
something sweet in the air.

We picked pastries.
We sat.
We took photos
the kind where you are both smiling
not for the camera
but because you actually are.

I don't remember everything we said.
But I remember how it felt.
Warm. Light. Easy.
Like a song you hear for the first time
and already know the words to.

Then it was time.

I left her near her home
just at the corner,
said whatever people say
when they don't want to say goodbye.

Walked back.

The sun was going down now.
That 5 o'clock colour in the sky
orange and a little pink
and something that doesn't have a name.

I was smiling.
Not at anything.
Just smiling.

Because some afternoons
don't feel like afternoons.
They feel like the first page
of something very good
you just started reading.

And you already don't want it to end.