ABIGAIL — COFFEE STILL OWED!
I laughed so hard I nearly dropped my suitcase.
“You’re ridiculous.”
“I’ve been patient for twelve years.”
“You weren’t even the one who paid!”
“I inherited the debt.”
We walked toward each other.
And for a moment, I thought about the woman I had been twelve months earlier.
The woman standing in her kitchen with a calendar full of everyone else’s appointments.
The woman who thought being needed was the same as being loved.
The woman who believed happiness had to wait.
I barely recognized her.
Arthur took my suitcase.
“Coffee?”
I smiled.
“Your treat?”
“Obviously.”
We walked out of the airport together.
Behind us was the life I had spent decades postponing.
Ahead of me was something I had never expected.
Not a replacement for Robert.
Not an escape from my past.
Something different.
Something new.
The painting still hangs above Arthur’s fireplace.
Robert’s letter sits beside it in a simple wooden frame.
