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.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH4VBqkqwtg
Maybe habit.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLoG8CPkWxE
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—8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDYVVyKnWo4
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.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW7mbrbwlct
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.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡodgwVdB8N3
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.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhZYw4rAkgG
If you find this, it means I’m braver today than I was yesterday.–E
I read it twice. Three times.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvs7YBgNSwm
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.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8GX4fTa1BU
He didn’t even know if I’d come that day.
But he left it anyway.
Not a confession.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2QbXtFwWIJ
Not quite.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs9u3EgtP6n
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.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjM6X7SNMHb
And for now, that was enough.
and then Add to home screen.