It was a particularly busy evening in the gallery as a new contemporary art exhibition was being prepared. The space was filled with the hum of voices, the clinking of glasses, and the smell of fresh paint. Emily was busy poring over lists, checking the lighting and making notes on her clipboard. But with each passing minute, her attention slipped more and more to Sebastian's figure against the opposite wall.

He was talking to the curator, but it was as if he sensed her gaze - he turned for a moment, caught her eyes, and smiled slightly. A quick, almost invisible gesture. And it was enough to make something in his chest tremble.

Later, already in the silence of the closed gallery, it was just the two of them. Emily approached a painting that had recently been brought in from a private collection. The one with the drawbridge under a full moon.

- Strange, isn't it? - she said quietly, examining the details. - If they really love each other... why does that millimeter remain?

Sebastian stood beside her, not touching her, but as if he were an extension of her thoughts.

- Sometimes that millimeter is bigger than the ocean," he said, "and scarier than the fall.

Emily shuddered slightly. She wanted to ask what exactly he meant, but his voice dissolved into the sounds of the nighttime city, the faint hum of the ventilation, her own breathing.

Late that night, already at home, Emily called Sarah, an old friend they'd lost contact with after Emily's father died.

- Just tell me," she breathed into the phone, "can it be real.... if it's so scary?

- Fear isn't a sign of lying, Em. It's a sign that you're on the verge of something important," came the reply. - You're not running away, are you?

- Not yet. But I'm not moving.

The next morning, Sebastian unexpectedly asked her to go to an auction in Boston with him as a gallery representative. It was a step to a new level. In business. And perhaps in feelings. Emily had agreed. But the slight cold feeling from the previous evening still lingered between them. Like that millimeter on the bridge.