Luna Hartwell's Arc

Chapter 1 of 1

Luna wiped down the pink register counter and counted the minutes until her shift ended. She was fifteen, saving tips in a jar at home, and quietly planning a life most kids her age would laugh at. A small house. A patient husband. Kids, eventually. She just had to find the right guy first. The bell over the door jingled. A boy stepped in, maybe seventeen, tall, with a slow grin that landed right on her. He ordered a coffee and a slice of pie. He called her 'the girl with the serious eyes.' Luna felt her face go hot. She rang him up on the pastel keys and pretended her hands weren't shaking. He took his coffee outside and settled into a chair under the striped umbrella, watching her through the window. When she brought his pie out, he asked her name. She told him. He said his was Theo, and that he was new in town. He stayed an hour, asking small questions and listening like every answer mattered. Then he stood, left a folded bill under his cup, and walked off. Luna cleared the table and found something he had set down beside the napkin holder — a tiny wooden polar bear, smooth and smiling up at her. She held it in her palm. He had not said goodbye, and he had not said he would be back. But he had left her something small and strange, and her whole quiet plan suddenly had a new face in it.