Mara’s POV
I almost didn’t go to the café that morning.
I’d had a nightmare the night before—one of the old ones. The kind that leaves you feeling like you’ve forgotten something important but can’t remember what. I woke up with a tightness in my chest and a strange, hollow kind of silence in the room.
But something pulled me there anyway.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9ah6ILXgAU
Maybe habit.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXVsaVICI9w
Maybe hope.
Eli wasn’t at Table Nine.
For a split second, my heart dipped in a way that scared me. Not because I missed him—32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9vtKzR1ElA
but because I already missed him.
I ordered my usual and sat by the window. The same seat where we first shared a single earbud, where I first saw the way he watched the world like he was rewriting it in real time.
When I picked up my cup, I noticed something tucked beneath the sleeve.
A folded square of paper.
At first, I thought it was a receipt.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK9lTfLMib8
But no.
It was a note.
His handwriting was small. Neat. Like it had been written slowly, deliberately. Like every word mattered more than it should.
If I could write down the things I’m too afraid to say, they’d start with you.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU1IErqrhAg
Not the you I see from the window, but the you I’m starting to know—the one who hides behind her smile and drinks her coffee like it’s a shield.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU62KqGvNma
If you find this, it means I’m braver today than I was yesterday.–E
I read it twice. Three times.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxZBifUbJzl
And then I just sat there, holding the cup like it might burn through my skin.
He didn’t know if I’d find it.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7VqPxOUZVo
He didn’t even know if I’d come that day.
But he left it anyway.
Not a confession.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeITkUtJeR9
Not quite.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJHCx7LTIRz
But close.
And for someone like me—who’s used to people leaving without warning—it felt like the most honest thing anyone had done in a long time.
When I looked up, he still wasn’t there.
But his words were.32Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGmJgBLjd1i
And for now, that was enough.
