After moving to a small town for a fresh start, I expected my biggest problem to be finding decent coffee. Instead, I met Celeste. The first time I saw her was in a café during a thunderstorm. She was sitting alone, looking entirely too cool for someone drinking hot chocolate with extra marshmallows. Trying to start a conversation, I smiled and asked, “So… are you a wolf?” The silence that followed was terrifying. She slowly lowered her cup. “I’m a hyena.” That should have been the end of it. Unfortunately, my chair chose that exact moment to collapse beneath me. Celeste laughed so hard she nearly fell out of hers. From that day on, she made it her personal mission to remind me of my humiliation. Every time we met, she’d casually ask things like, “Still losing fights against furniture?” The problem was that the more she teased me, the more I liked her. And the more I liked her, the harder it became to act normal around her. Which led to incidents involving spilled coffee, walking into glass doors, accidentally calling her beautiful out loud, and once tripping over a sleeping cat while trying to impress her. Celeste found every second hilarious. Still, she kept showing up. Movie nights became weekly. Friendly arguments became daily. Somewhere between sarcastic comments and shared laughter, friendship became something more. Then one night, while walking home together under the town lights, she slipped her hand into mine. I nearly had a heart attack. She looked away, trying—and failing—to hide a smile. “Don’t make a big deal out of it.” I grinned. “Celeste, you literally held my hand.” “Shut up.” For the first time, the fearless hyena looked embarrassed. And somehow, that made me fall for her even harder. ❤️