"You see numbers," she said softly. "I see colors. Together, we might just make a masterpiece."

He left the meeting early—something he never did.

But two weeks later, when he was stuck in a late-night meeting reviewing traffic flow models, a photo appeared on his phone: Elena's sketch of him sitting at a kopitiam, hair slightly messy, but with a small smile he didn't know he had. The caption read: "The urban planner who forgot to plan his own happiness."

Elena arrived 20 minutes later, paint smudged on her fingers. They sat on a bench until the lights dimmed. When Gary tried to apologize for being "too logical," she simply took his hand and traced a line from his wrist to his fingertips.