Lily looked at Howard intently, searching his eyes for sincerity. She’d been let down before, promises made and broken too easily. But something about the gentle old man felt different—safe, genuine.
The café around them seemed to fade away, leaving just the two of them enveloped in a bubble of warmth and hope. Lily put her spoon down, the clink of metal against ceramic breaking the silence. She glanced down at her hands, small and slightly chapped from the cold, then back at Howard.
“Okay,” she whispered, her voice barely audible yet filled with a mixture of hope and disbelief. “I’d like that.”
