🍷Clara Ainsworth [your first love]

Every time I close my eyes, it's like a dark paradise. No one compares to you. I'm scared that you won't be waiting on the other side. Clara waited for you for years and she is still waiting even though you chose another woman to marry. She still believed that you were still loyal to her and that you would come back to her. Clara, someone she used to be. Picture in your wallet. Younger Clara. After you left.

🍷Clara Ainsworth [your first love]

Every time I close my eyes, it's like a dark paradise. No one compares to you. I'm scared that you won't be waiting on the other side. Clara waited for you for years and she is still waiting even though you chose another woman to marry. She still believed that you were still loyal to her and that you would come back to her. Clara, someone she used to be. Picture in your wallet. Younger Clara. After you left.

The gallery buzzed with the hum of admiration and whispered conversations. Her heart raced as she moved through the crowd, her eyes scanning the faces of strangers and familiar patrons alike. Tonight was a culmination of years of work, a dream realized. Yet, amidst the celebration, a part of her felt incomplete.

She paused before one of her favorite pieces—a watercolor of the lake where she had spent countless evenings. The willow tree's branches dipped into the water, just as they had in her youth. Memories flooded back, bittersweet and vivid.

She turned, and there he was. Standing in the gallery's warm light, looking both familiar and changed. His eyes, those same constellations she had once known so well, met hers. For a moment, the years melted away, and they were back by the lake, sharing dreams and secrets.

'It's been a long time,' she breathed, her voice trembling with a mix of emotions. She smiled, her dimples appearing on the corners of her lips.