I looked up, spotting Jess in the crowd. Anger replaced my tears.
“Sorry, Brian. But I need to talk to your girlfriend,” I said, my tone sharp.
“She’s not my—” Brian called after me, but I didn’t care to hear the rest.
I reached Jess, holding up the letter. “Care to explain this?” I asked.
Jess hesitated, then sighed.
She took my hand, surprising me, and led me toward the school bleachers.
Once we sat, Jess took a deep breath, her shoulders slumping. “I’m sorry,” she said.
“Sorry isn’t enough,” I replied, my tone sharper than I intended. “Why did you do it?”
“Why?” She gave a bitter laugh.
“Don’t you get it? I wanted to be you.”
I stared at her, confused. “What?
That’s ridiculous,” I said, laughing out of disbelief.
“You don’t understand,” Jess said, her eyes meeting mine. “You were perfect, Amelia. You had it all.
You were smart, you had great parents, and you had Brian. I wanted something of yours, anything. I didn’t even like Brian that much.”
“You didn’t like him?
Then why—?” I started, but she cut me off.
“I wanted to take something from you. It made me feel better, like I mattered,” Jess admitted. “We broke up three weeks later.
It wasn’t even worth it.”
I shook my head. “I thought you two were still together,” I said.
“No,” she said, wiping her face. “He just gave me a ride today.
That’s it.”
I looked down at my hands, my voice softening. “I loved Brian. I thought I’d marry him.”
Jess nodded.
“He loved you, Amelia. That’s why he reacted the way he did. The rumor about you and Malcolm—I made it up.
I didn’t care what happened as long as he doubted you.”
I shook my head again. “Malcolm is married now. To his husband,” I said firmly.
Jess let out a shaky laugh.
“No one knew that back then.” She paused, her voice quiet. “I don’t know how to make up for it. I don’t think I can.”
“You can’t change what happened,” I said.
Jess hesitated.
“I’ve missed you.”
I looked at her. “I’ve missed you too,” I admitted after a moment.
We sat there for a while, not saying much. Then Jess nudged me, pointing toward the field.
“He’s not looking for me,” she said.
I sighed and climbed down the bleachers, my steps slow and uncertain. When I reached Brian, my mind raced, and I almost forgot how to speak. Before I could say anything, he started.
“Amelia,” he said, his voice steady.
“First, I want to make one thing clear. Jess isn’t my girlfriend. I haven’t seen her since high school.”
I nodded.
“I know,” I said, my voice quieter than intended.
Brian glanced at me, then down at the ground. “The locket you put in the capsule—is it the one I gave you?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said. “It’s funny.
Back then, I thought that by the time we dug it up, we’d already be married. I imagined it being this sweet moment.” I paused, my chest tightening. “But…”
“I was an idiot,” Brian said, cutting me off.
“I didn’t give you a chance to explain. I let myself believe something that wasn’t true.”
“We were kids,” I said, shrugging.
“But we’re not kids now,” he said, his tone softening. “Amelia, I’ve thought about you for years.
I told myself it didn’t matter anymore, but seeing you today, I realized I was wrong. I felt something I haven’t felt in a long time.”
“It doesn’t matter, Brian,” I said quickly. “I live in New York now.”
“So do I,” he said, a small smile forming.
“And I’d like to take you on a date.”
I hesitated. “I don’t know—”
“Just one date,” he said, looking at me earnestly.
I sighed, then smiled a little. “Fine.
But only if you win me a new locket. This one’s turned black,” I said, holding it up.
Brian laughed, his face lighting up. “It’s a deal.”
The old city cinema wasn’t just a job for Emma.
It was a place where the hum of the projector could momentarily erase the worries of the world.
Every Monday morning, Edward appeared, his arrival as steady as the sunrise. He wasn’t like the regulars who rushed in, fumbling for coins or their tickets.
Edward carried himself with quiet dignity, his tall, lean frame draped in a neatly buttoned gray coat. His silver hair, combed back with precision, caught the light as he approached the counter.
He always asked for the same thing.
“Two tickets for the morning movie.”
And yet, he always came alone.
Why two tickets? Who are they for?
“Two tickets again?” Sarah teased from behind her, smirking as she rang up another customer. “Maybe it’s for some lost love.
Like an old-fashioned romance, you know?”
“Or maybe a ghost,” another coworker, Steve, chimed in, snickering. “He’s probably married to one.”
Emma didn’t laugh. There was something about Edward that made their jokes feel wrong.
She thought about asking him, even rehearsing a few lines in her head.
But it wasn’t her place.
***
The following Monday was different. It was her day off, and as Emma lay in bed, an idea began to form.
What if she followed him? It isn’t spying.
It’s… curiosity. It was almost Christmas, after all—a season of wonder.
Edward was already seated when she entered the dimly lit theater, his figure outlined by the soft glow of the screen.
He seemed lost in thought. His eyes flickered toward her, and a faint smile crossed his lips.
“You’re not working today,” he observed.
She slid into the seat next to him. “I thought you might need company.
I’ve seen you here so many times.”
He chuckled softly, though the sound held a trace of sadness. “It’s not about the movies.”
“Then what is it?” she asked, unable to hide the curiosity in her tone.
Edward leaned back in his seat, his hands folded neatly in his lap. For a moment, he seemed hesitant, as though deciding whether or not to trust her with what he was about to say.
Then he spoke.
“Years ago,” he began, his gaze fixed on the screen, “there was a woman who worked here.
Her name was Evelyn.”
Emma remained quiet, listening intently.
“She was beautiful,” he continued, a faint smile tugging at his lips. “Not in the way that turns heads, but in the way that lingers. Like a melody that you can’t forget.
She’d been working here. We met here, and then our story began.”
She pictured it as he spoke.
“One day, I invited her to a morning show on her day off,” Edward said. “She agreed.
But she never came.”
“What happened?” Emma whispered, leaning closer.
“I found out later that she’d been fired,” he said, his tone heavier now. “When I asked the manager for her contact information, he refused and told me never to come back. I didn’t understand why.
She was just… gone.”
Edward exhaled, his gaze falling to the empty seat beside him. “I tried to move on.
I got married and lived a quiet life. But after my wife passed, I started coming here again, hoping… just hoping…
I don’t know.”
Emma swallowed hard. “She was the love of your life.”
“She was. And she still is.”
“What do you remember about her?” she asked.
“Only her name,” Edward admitted.
“Evelyn.”
“I’ll help you find her.”
***
Getting ready to face her father felt like preparing for a battle she wasn’t sure she could win. Her dad, Thomas, was the owner of the cinema, and the one person who would be able to tell them about an old employee.
He was also a man who appreciated order and professionalism—traits he lived by and judged others for.
Edward waited patiently by the door, his hat in hand, looking both apprehensive and composed. “You’re sure he’ll talk to us?”
“No,” Emma admitted, pulling on her coat.
“But we have to try.”
On the way to the cinema office, she found herself opening up to Edward, perhaps to calm her nerves.
“My mom had Alzheimer’s,” she explained, gripping the steering wheel a little tighter. “It started while she was pregnant with me. Her memory was…
unpredictable. Some days, she’d know exactly who I was. Other days, she’d look at me like I was a stranger.”
Edward nodded solemnly.
“That must have been hard for you.”
“It was,” she said. “Especially because my Dad, I call him Thomas, decided to put her in a care facility. I understand why, but over time, he just stopped visiting her.
And when my grandmother passed, all the responsibility fell on me. He helped financially, but he was… absent.
That’s the best way to describe him. Distant. Always distant.”
Edward didn’t say much, but his presence was grounding.
Emma hesitated before opening the door to Thomas’s office.
Inside, he sat at his desk, papers
