Til The End Of Time

Chapter 1: Ivy

Ivy ran into the line at Starbucks and sighed, waving at Rachel who was already waiting for her drink.

Ivy really needed to remember leaving earlier when she and Rachel planned coffee, which was almost every day, but still.

Once she was through the line she joined Rachel who was already outside and blowing on her hot cup of coffee.

"You know you could get the exact same coffee at my place," Ivy said, staring at her dark curly-haired friend of eight years.

"Yeah, but then I don't get the Starbucks experience," Rachel fanned her hand out dramatically.

Ivy glanced at her friend as they walked down the street to Brooklyn Coffee & Antiques which was Ivy's shop that had been passed down from her grandma down to her mother and now to her. Having recently adding a few baked goods along with more coffee options which helped with the sales and keeping the business afloat. Just barely.

"You have that look again," Rachel said.

Ivy looked at her frozen frappuccino and shrugged.

"Is the shop doing that bad again?"

Ivy didn't want to get into the subject, she hated the idea of being a failure, the one who caused the family store to shut down.

"It's fine," she lied.

"Then what is it?"

"Nothing serious."

"Tell your face then," Rachel nudged her friend with her elbow, trying to earn a smile.

Ivy smiled, just to pleased her friend and get her off her interrogation.

Once they got to the shop she unlocked the security gate and pushed it up and then unlocked the doors.

The two girls walked in and Ivy grabbed her apron and started up the coffee machine. She placed some homemade cookies on the counter next to the register and pulled her hair up in a high pony. She then started the record player, Patsy Cline's thick voice filling the shop. It still would be a while before anyone even stepped into the store.

Ivy already tried renaming the store to something more eye catching, however, she couldn't afford all the legal actions to do so. She was desperate, which was low for even her, but not desperate enough to start asking for help from her mother.

"So how was last night?" Ivy asked, flipping through an old 1940's magazine.

"Craig was amazing!" Rachel smiled.

"Oh?" Ivy asked, not looking up and taking a sip of her drink.

"Why do you say it like that?" Rachel sighed, rearranging the jewelry pieces for the millionth time this month.

"Like what?"

"Like it's a bad thing I hooked up with someone."

Ivy almost choked on her drink and coughed. "What?!"

"See! You're doing it now!"

"Doing what?! I just nearly died!"

"Judging me!"

Ivy stared at her with wide eyes. "What are you talking about? You're my friend! I don't care what you do in the bedroom, that is your business. If Craig?" Ivy paused, continuing once Rachel nodded. "Made you happy, then that's all that matters to me."

"Good."

"I just think he should buy you dinner first before jumping in your bed," Ivy teased and snickered when Rachel hit her shoulder with a book. "Careful with the delicate objects!"

"It's a book!"

"It's antique, hello, we're in an antique store!"

Rachel rolled her eyes. "You know you're a rare breed, and most people would call you a prude and old-fashioned." Ivy rolled her eyes as Rachel continued. "Just because you want the old romance doesn't mean that's what people want nowadays."

"What's wrong with wanting old-fashioned romance where the man comes and picks you up in his car, has flowers, is nervous all through dinner, and then walks you up to his door and proceeds to overthink if he should give you a kiss? There's just something about it, and writing letters, seeing movies in black and white, dancing the whole night away."

Rachel snickered. "You were born in the wrong generation."

"Why?"

"Cause you're the kind of girl to meet a soldier right before he's deployed and marry him."

"What's wrong with that?"

"You don't even know him and you're not only hooking up with him before he gets killed but also now a widow."

"Not necessarily, I become the girl he can't wait to get back to and fights for, and once he returns we have a home and a happily ever after."

"Where all you do is bake cookies."

"Oh please, I don't need to get married to a soldier from war to do that, I already do."

Rachel shook her head. It amazed Ivy the two remained friends for such a long time, the two were exact opposites and had two very different ideas of romance and what was swoon-worthy.

Ivy assumed she got her ideas from her grandma when she would visit her at the shop. Talking about all the stories from WWII, and how they moved here when her mother was a young child.

Memories of that were sometimes too painful for Ivy to remember, she hadn't lost any family in the blip, everyone she knew had already passed except for her mother which was the only family Ivy had left.

Another reason why she couldn't let the store fail, the store was the legacy of their family.

She wished that there was a soldier to sweep her away and romance her in the time of crisis, tell her that the night was too special to forget and he needed to remember her forever. Proposing that the two get married on a whim that he would return again from war and live their best life once he returns and that he couldn't make it through with the idea of her possibly finding someone else while he's away.

After all, that is what her grandfather did with her grandmother. They were in the war when he proposed before he left. They had a happy life, they moved to America for his job in the war, and he had returned.

Yet it seemed impossible for the universe to grant Ivy her long-awaited wish for true love to sweep her off her feet.