The Bureau of Dreams to be Continued by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview

The Bureau of Dreams to be Continued

Page 332

She was already there. Same blue denim jacket. Same unreadable book. But now, her hair was streaked with silver, like someone had drawn moonlight through it.

“You came,” she said, stirring her coffee with a spoon made of old apologies.

“I wasn’t sure I should.”

“That’s the dress code here,” she said. “Uncertainty and something you wish you’d said.”

He looked around. The menu offered items like “First Kiss Soufflé,” “Unsent Letter Latte,” and “What If Waffles.” He ordered the “Almost Said It” tea.

They talked. Not about the past, but about the versions of themselves that had never met. She told him about the life she might’ve lived in a city where it never rained. He told her about the job he didn’t take, the poem he never finished, the dog he almost adopted.

At one point, she reached across the table and touched his hand. It felt like a memory being rewritten.

“I don’t regret you,” she said.

He smiled. “I regret not knowing that sooner.”