The Crunchy Pear

When a French-cuisine girl buried in debt meets a wealthy third-generation tavern owner scarred by trauma, it takes them five years to learn that the best love is choosing to stand side by side even after each has found fulfillment on their own. He paused, as though recalling the bone-chilling cold he had felt that day. “I couldn't bring myself to ask you to stay. My world was a mess, and I was trapped in the mud myself. How could I drag you down with me?” His thumb brushed her cheek, his voice as soft as a sigh. “I thought you'd eventually get tired of flying, that you'd eventually miss home. Maybe... once you'd achieved your dreams, once you'd grown stronger, once you... you'd be willing to look back and see me, still here waiting for you.” “So I waited.” He looked into her eyes, speaking each word clearly and slowly, every syllable steeped in five years of loneliness and hope. “One year, two years, five years... I'll wait as long as it takes.”