From the outside, it looked like a clean success story. Inside, something never quite settled.
I dated. Some relationships lasted months. One lasted nearly two years.
My uncle once asked me why none of them stuck.
I joked and said I was too married to work.
Charlotte left for the city with her widowed mother and brother to chase modeling.
He looked at me over his coffee. "Son, I think you're still measuring everybody against one girl in a blue dress."
He wasn't wrong. And then one stormy night, 20 years later, she showed up carrying my dinner and looking like life had asked too much of her.
***
By dawn, I had made up my mind. I called the restaurant, ordered food, and asked for Charlotte specifically. Then I added a note to the order:
"You forgot something. Come back."
The second evening, when the bell rang again, my heart kicked so hard it embarrassed me.
