Lora Brambleworth's Arc

Chapter 1 of 1

Lora stood in her kitchen staring at two phone numbers written on separate scraps of paper. Kira had left hers yesterday after helping fix the fence. Bella had tucked hers into Lora's coat pocket last week at the market. Both wanted dinner. Both wanted more than dinner. She called them both. Said yes to coffee at the mushroom house on the edge of town, the one with the red polka-dotted cap and lanterns that glowed soft in the evenings. She didn't plan for them to show up at the same time, but they did. Kira arrived with a platter of roasted chicken and mac and cheese, the kind of meal that said I see you, I know what matters. Bella brought chocolates in a beautiful box tied with ribbon, each piece perfect and expensive. They both looked at Lora. Then at each other. Lora felt the old exhaustion rise up. The one that came from trying to be enough for everyone. She wanted a family, wanted love that didn't leave. But standing between two people who wanted her felt nothing like being chosen. It felt like another test she hadn't studied for. She set down her coffee. Told them both she needed time. That she couldn't pick someone just to prove she was worth picking. They left separately, quiet and disappointed. Lora sat alone under the lanterns as the sky turned purple. For the first time in years, she didn't feel like she'd failed. She felt like she'd protected something fragile. Something that might, eventually, be enough all on its own.