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.58Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq6KRq4dVlX
Maybe habit.58Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7Fnd1QnpzG
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—58Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAMY0fxITwN
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.58Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtK6kN0h2k2
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.58Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8OyQw4rcsg
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.58Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2flHexj57R
If you find this, it means I’m braver today than I was yesterday.–E
I read it twice. Three times.58Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjc2dgk3N8J
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.58Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXeyFgU55WL
He didn’t even know if I’d come that day.
But he left it anyway.
Not a confession.58Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFbI4zwHtvM
Not quite.58Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3MGaAHdmvS
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.58Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxsp9rHgAMO
And for now, that was enough.
