--- Chapter Five ---
It wasn’t long.
Not a speech.
Not anything poetic.
Just a message.
Hi.
I was wondering
if you’d ever see it.
I wasn’t sure
if I should write again.
But I’m glad you did.
There was something simple about it.
Unforced.
Unrehearsed.
As if he wasn’t trying
to impress me—
just… respond.
No grand explanation.
No attempt
to make it mean more
than it did.
And somehow,
that made it easier
to stay.
I read it once.
Then again.
Not because of what it said—
but because
it existed.
A reply.
From someone
who had once been
just a name
attached to a bottle.
And now —
he was real.
~
NEXT:
Chapter 6 — Good Mornings
Chapter 7 — A Sweet Surrender