*(But Here We Are)*

“You realise,” Sienna said over coffee, “that you might have accidentally summoned a man.”

Ava stared at her.

“I did not summon a man.”

Sienna opened her Notes app.

“You literally said, ‘Come to me, Black Knight.’”

In today’s world, every phone vibration feels like a summons.

Meetings. Messages. Algorithms deciding who we should meet next.

But Ava had discovered something strange.

Apparently, thoughts could summon things too.

By the time Sienna opened her Notes app, the Black Knight mythology already had rules.

Not because they believed in knights.

But because modern dating required a classification system.

Some men arrived like storms.

Some like fog.

Some like a perfectly charming sunrise that disappeared by lunchtime.

If they were going to survive the weather patterns of the heart… they needed a forecast.

Sienna raised her coffee cup.

“Research,” she said solemnly.

Ava laughed.

“Research?”

Sienna nodded.

“If the Black Knight exists, we’re going to need a taxonomy.”

And that’s when the real work began.

And then, inconveniently for everyone’s sense of logic…

A man appeared.

Not immediately.

Not with thunder or glowing runes.

Just stepping off the midnight train like someone who had somewhere reasonable to be.

Serendipitous?

Sienna thought so.

“Careful,” she said later over coffee.

“You’re turning a coincidence into a mythology.”

Ava shrugged.

“Maybe.”

The strange thing about the man who eventually entered Ava’s life wasn’t that he felt legendary.

It was that he felt… steady.

No performance.

No drama.

Just the quiet confidence of someone who understood patience.

Sienna noticed it immediately.

“That one’s calm,” she said.

Tailored coat instead of armour.

Good manners instead of heroic speeches.

The kind of presence that didn’t demand attention… it simply held it.

More the kind of man who might step off a late train than ride a white horse.

“He’s not rescuing you,” Sienna observed one evening.

“I know.”

“He’s not trying to impress you either.”

Ava smiled slightly.

“I noticed.”

Their connection didn’t unfold in grand gestures.

It appeared in small things:

Conversations that wandered further than expected.

Shared glances that lasted half a second longer than necessary.

Silences that didn’t feel awkward.

For two people who had learned to move carefully through modern life, it felt… unfamiliar.

“This isn’t destiny,” Sienna said eventually.

Ava nodded.

“No.”

“It’s choice.”

That distinction mattered.

Because neither of them was looking to be rescued.

Modern life had already taught them enough about independence. 

It was more like two women trying to make sense of modern love using the oldest language they knew.

But there was something quietly rebellious about the idea that love might still involve honour:

Attention.

Care.

Not dramatic devotion.

Just someone choosing to stay.

Of course, at the time Ava didn’t know any of that.

All she knew was that she had made a ridiculous declaration on a balcony…

…and Sienna had opened her Notes app.

“Research,” Sienna said solemnly.

Because if the universe was going to start responding to balcony speeches, they were going to need a system.

Well… modern life may not have asked for a Black Knight.

But apparently it got one anyway.

And if this story is going to continue…

You might want to grab a coffee.

☕️ Coffee first. Then Taxonomy. Research in progress → Episode 3.