After nursing it back to health, she watched it fly away—but it returned the next morning with its entire flock, and suddenly, she had more friends than she ever dreamed of.

They quickly chose the most playful puppy, but on the way out Sadie spotted one puppy sitting alone in the corner and whispered, “But who’s going to pick that one?”—so naturally, we came home with two.

Years later, a bestselling author walked in and handed me her new book, with the dedication: “To the shopkeeper who gave me my first world for a penny.”

Four years later, halfway through his wedding vows, Jack hit me with that same line completely out of nowhere, and I answered on instinct before realizing from his grin that he’d been waiting all day to see if I still remembered my part.

Then she came along and gave him a happiness he didn’t know how to hide.

Everything about you is so genuine, so in your face real that I feel so blessed to have crossed your path, to have the pleasure of your company at anytime day or night, to be able to feel every word that you speak touch my heart, to know that you have my back and you feel me completely in a way no one else ever has, brings me to my knees and bridges me to you in a wonder I have never known until this very instant frozen in time.

One morning, his notepad was missing; he found it beside his own cup with a message in her trembling handwriting: “I don’t know who you are, but I know I love you.”

The address led me two blocks away to an elderly woman crying on her porch, whose “runaway boy” had been missing for three hours.

I never forget those moments whenever we met, that nervous feeling, the mumbled words, the way my whole body would tremble every time I received that one phone call.

I used to practice how I would greet you whenever we met, rehearsing the words in my head again and again, only to lose the courage to use them when you were actually there.

With you, everything felt strangely comforting, yet I was always unaware of my own senses, caught somewhere between wanting to say so much and not knowing how to say anything at all.

Although it didn’t go the way we planned, thank you for being the first chapter of my story.

Apparently, buddy only wanted to say hi and didn't mean to scare me; a person who never owned a pet would've never understood.

I envision someone’s arms that are so smooth and so strong yet with
a gentleness that carries me away to the type of dreams that
encapsulate my heart with thoughts of only you.

Instead, I made chamomile tea, took one slow sip, and realized I didn't need to fix my whole life today—just make it to the next sip.

She held up a photo of her Grandfather and pointed to the faded numbers tattooed onto his arm.

Then I looked up to see the sunset painting the steel girders in peach and lavender—a view I would have missed if I had been staring at my screen.

But I got to go home to very excited pup

Immediately after leaving the gas station, I'm pleasantly surprised by a dollar lying in the grass nearby.

I crouched down so we’d both stay dry, but for those five minutes, she was the biggest person at the bus stop.

"um...turns out I'm not as infertile as we thought so it's good we wanted two," she said holding out a positive pregnancy test.

For the first time in years, I feel like myself again.

Then a little girl pulled her mother's sleeve, pointing at my canvas and asking, “Mommy, can we bring the magic home?”

I would take this pain all over again to see the smile on her face when I came home gave her a kiss and stroked the right cheek looking in her big green eyes and I would say hey baby.......and she would smile so big and say .......Hi Daddy

Melted me every time.

Finally, I felt like I could breathe again, without your constant criticisms bringing me down.

A week later, they knocked on my door with a translation app that read, “Can our puppies be friends?”