For the first time in our lives, neither of us was trying to outrun the past.
We were simply enjoying the present.
The Proposal Neither of Us Expected
A year passed.
Second Chapter became a beloved neighborhood bookstore.
Students came in to study. Parents brought their children to the Saturday reading sessions Karen organized. Local authors held events in the reading corner, and the coffee machine that had once terrified her became one of the shop’s most reliable investments.
Karen hired another employee, expanded the children’s section, and started a monthly book club.
She also began writing again.
Not for publication, at least initially. She filled notebooks with memories, ideas, and stories she had carried in her head for decades.
One afternoon, I found her sitting at the little round table, writing in a blue notebook.
“What are you working on?”
She closed it.
“Nothing.”
I narrowed my eyes.
“That’s the same thing I used to say when you asked me whether I was falling in love with you.”
