My mom, an old-school English teacher, debated him on Brontë vs. Austen over coffee. Then he drove us to a lake just outside the city.
We laid out a picnic with fresh fruit and sandwiches. For a few quiet moments, it felt like peace. Then my mom slipped.
Literally. One misstep, and she fell into the shallow end of the lake. Without hesitation, Theo dove in after her.
Shoes, shirt, everything. He helped her up gently, making jokes the whole time. She actually laughed.
A real, honest-to-God laugh. Later that night, we dried off and shared tea in her kitchen. She looked at me and whispered, “He’s a good one.” And I knew—something had shifted.
Two months later, Theo proposed. He handed me a new list, written in his neat handwriting. It read: “REASONS I LOVE YOU.” At the bottom: “Not even your mom’s list could scare me away.”
I said yes.
It turns out, love didn’t just transform my life—it transformed hers, too. In the end, we both became the women we were meant to be. And Theo?
He’s still wiping down tables, just in case.
