LETTERS NEVER DELIVERED · Alico
Ravenna,
There was nothing unusual about the bakery tonight. Miela finished her coffee and left without pretending she was only there to people watch.
By all reasonable standards, it was an uneventful shift.
I saw that you gave a delivery driver an extra cookie. Yes, I was jealous, but that's not the point. I love when you pack the last cinnamon stars for someone who can't afford a full box. Remember how you argued with me over whether a broken cookie counts as a gift?
For the record, it counts.
I spent years believing that protecting a place meant keeping danger outside it. I still intend to do that whenever necessary. But the things you do inside those four walls matter just as much, and I suspect I noticed them long before I understood why I kept returning.
I could say I came for the Lapsang Souchong. You would laugh, and you would be right to.
There are nights when I have very little to offer beyond my company and a shadow manifestation with appalling manners.
You always make room for all of me.
I am trying to learn how to accept that without treating it as something I must earn.
Yours, Office Alico Argent
P.S. I did not move the spare cookie from the counter. My shadow did. I have spoken to it, and we are working on it.