Description

Three students. One torchlit mistake. A single late-night kiss in a campus alley tangles Rumi Turner's careful life with Kai Chirati and Sam Davenport—and none of them can keep pretending nothing happened.

At the University of Birmingham in the present day, shy second-year engineer Rumi is drawn into Kai's fibre technology lab to help shape an electrospun "living fabric" he hopes to pitch to campus investors. Late shifts teach her the rhythm of the machines and Kai's guarded focus, while Sam—mercurial, nineteen, and long in love with Kai—refuses to stand back. As winter closes in, two jobs and unspoken family duties pull at Kai; Rumi finds a steadier voice; Sam pushes to be seen. Old history, new rivalries, and a thread of unspoken want press toward a choice: protect themselves, or risk saying what they want—on the pitch, and with each other. No magic, no puzzles—just real-world rules, slow-burn tension, and tender, quietly witty contemporary drama.

Boundaries: kisses on page; no explicit intimacy; occasional strong language; brief medical distress; no graphic violence.

Complete standalone.

For readers who like campus-set coming of age For readers who like slow-burn queer tension and love triangles For readers who like STEM-lab detail with artsy sparks For readers who like found-family kindness For readers who like tender, quietly witty contemporary drama