Page 32 of Lease to Love

I turned to the back cover.

The corners had softened over the years, the edges worn despite how rarely I touched it.

I knew the picture before I even looked at the writing underneath it.

Autumn and Sunny — Summer '18

We looked so young. That was always the first thing.

Not we looked happy, even though we did.

We looked genuinely, stupidly happy. The kind of happy that doesn't know yet that it has an expiration date.

Just—

We looked so young.

Autumn had straightened her hair that day, which she almost never did. She was wearing a black ribbed knit dress because she'd wanted something she could wear anywhere.

I was wearing blue velvet with a white underlayer because I didn’t do neutral colors.

I'd made both outfits.

I'd wanted us to have something new and special for the occasion, something I'd made with my own hands.

Autumn had asked me exactly eleven times if I was sure I had time to make two outfits on top of everything else.

I'd told her exactly eleven times to mind her business and let me sew.

I smiled at the memory, then my eyes moved back to the picture.

Four months… There had been four months between that picture and the last time I heard her voice.

Four months of movie nights. Plans. Dreams.

Four months of “when we open the shop.”

And then a snack run because I had to have my sweet chili Doritos that day.

And then—Nothing.

Forever.

I traced the edge of the photograph with my fingertip.

Autumn looked like herself.

That's what got me. She didn't look like somebody who was about to disappear from my life.

She looked like somebody with places to be after this picture.

Like there was a tomorrow waiting for her.

A tear landed on the page.

I blinked, then looked down.

Another tear followed.