Coffee After Three Years

Title: After the Quiet Years Lena was twenty-four when she realized that time had rearranged

everything. She hadn’t seen Mark in three years—not since their careful, mutual breakup after

college. They’d loved each other in the way young adults often do: intensely,

earnestly, and without much foresight. When his mother passed and Mark

moved overseas, life quietly pulled them apart. She didn’t expect to see his father

again. Thomas Hale was older now—silver threaded through his dark hair,

the sharpness of his grief softened into something steadier. When Lena ran into him at a local bookstore,

they both froze, surprised by recognition and memory. “Lena,” he said, gently.