“Two?”
The woman behind the counter recognized me.
I almost said yes.
Then I looked toward the empty place beside the station entrance.
“Yeah.”
She handed me my coffee with cream and Larry’s black.
I carried both outside and sat in his usual spot.
For two years, I’d never stayed there long enough to finish a cup.
I almost said yes.
I put his coffee beside me.
Then I unfolded the next page.
Larry had written only one sentence at the top.
“I didn’t need a wife to make my life matter, Sarah.”
Underneath it was another.
I unfolded the next page.
“But I did want to know what it felt like once to have somebody choose that word with me.”
I stopped.
The black coffee beside me steamed in the cold air.
Then I read the next line.
“I knew if I’d told you the truth, you might still have said yes.”
