To All The Broken Things

One rule that had Penelope Callahan's life set on - "You ruin everything you touch."

That landed her to a thrift shop that opened the wounds she thought had already healed. She panics, staring at a blue mug - covered in forget-me-nots - she had accidentally broke.

For a moment, she expected hurtful words to be thrown at her. But Elias Rowe - the owner of the thrift shop, an EMT during weekends -doesn't ask if she's okay. He just let her breathing pattern match his, counting down from 10.

He does kintsugi on the blue mug, putting it back together with real gold.

He stays. She tests him and breaks his heart along with the mug he had fixed for her. "This is how it feels to love me."

He exits through the door without yelling. Not with a slam, just the quiet click enough to snap her back to reality.

Now Penelope owns a thrift shop called Second Chances. Shelves filled with broken things that hold water anyways.

She still counts down from 10. With his voice.

But, some broken things don't get fixed together. The shards just ended up cutting both when all they wanted to do was help.

Broken things don't get thrown away. They are given second chances.

Unfortunately, you can't do kintsugi on a relationship bound to shatter anyways.

Yet, Penelope and Elias proved that wrong.