Lila found the book by accident - a worn teal cover tucked in the "Staff Picks" shelf at the bookstore where she worked. Inside, someone had scribbled notes in the margins - questions, doodles, reactions. "Why does he always describe the rain like it's sad? Rain's? rain.

" Read one. She laughed, bought the book, and wrote a reply beneath it: "Maybe he's never danced in it."

A week later, she found another annotated book - a poetry collection left conspicuously on the counter. "Do you think 'forever' is a promise or a lie?

She answered: "Depends who's saying it. "

It became a game. Eliot (she learned his name from a coffee receipt he'd accidentally tucked into a novel) left books like breadcrumbs - Thoreau, Atwood, a cheesy thriller. Lila replied in pencil, savoring the intimacy of strangers dissecting life through borrowed words.

Then, one rainy Thursday, he walked in. Gangly, freckled, holding two coffees. "I figured? if we're going to argue about metaphors, we should at least know each other's faces."

They talked until the store closed. He was an electrician who read philosophy during lunch breaks; she was a part-time art student who hated cilantro. No grand confessions, just the warm, giddy relief of someone who gets your quiet corners.

A year later, Lila found a note in her toolbox: "Forever's a promise. Let's test it.