She smiled, handed me a hairpin, and said, “You’ll need this one day.” The owner fired me. I kept the pin, not expecting much. 6 weeks later,…

I didn’t notice the receipt at first. A woman with wind-reddened cheeks handed it to me at self-checkout, smiling shyly before we went our separate ways. Hours…

After three years of silence and missed birthdays, he suddenly wanted a weekend with her — to “make things right,” he said. I packed her backpack with…

 I scrubbed it, washed it, even tried soaking it overnight, but it refused to fade. A few days later, another mark appeared, then another, until it looked…