Page 190 of The Heart You Kept

“Well.” She cuts her steak with a subtle shrug. “I’m happy today.” She smiles with another shrug as she bites the steak from her fork.

I stare at her with a frown. “What does that mean?”

“I live for the day, I’m happy in the moment.”

“What the fuck does that mean? Speak English.”

“Well….” She thinks for a moment. “So many people live in the future and are always thinking ahead as to what will make them happy, but in the meantime are walking around miserable.”

“True.” I sip my wine as I listen.

“And up until recently I had always been very happy on a day-to-day basis.”

“Why until recently?”

“Well.” She smiles softly over at me. “You were this beautiful book that I started to read in Switzerland but I got interrupted and felt like I didn’t get to finish the story.” She takes a sip of wine. “But I always had your page turned down in hope that one day I could pick it back up to see how it ended.”

My heart swells as I stare at her.

“And then I saw you at that auction and instantly I was back in the unfinished book. And no matter how hard I tried to live in the moment and enjoy my day, I couldn’t do it.”

“Why not?”

“Because I was back in there with you.”

We stare at each other as the air crackles between us.

“So my days became sad and lonely and I felt like I wasn’t where I was supposed to be.”

“And now you’re here and back in our book.”

“Yes.” She holds her glass over and I tap it with mine.

“Where does this book go, Alora?”

“I don’t know.” She shrugs. “But I do know that I’m happy being back in the moment and I want to just take it one day at a time with us. As long as we’re both happy today is all that matters.”

I stare at her for a moment, uneasiness falls over me at her answer.

If your plan is to make me fall in love with you…only to leave me as soon as things get hard.

“You like to live a simple life?” I ask.

“I do. Stillness changes me in a way that busy can’t.”

“I have never been still.”

“I know.” She chews her food as if thinking. “But how do you know what’s in your heart if you are never still enough to listen to it?”

“Maybe my heart doesn’t speak.” I shrug.

“Or maybe you just never listened to it.”

I eat in silence, unsure how she wants me to respond.

“Love isn’t always loud, Edward.”

My eyes rise to meet hers. “What does that mean?”