Meet Max and Shelley

"Chicken and eggs were Shelley's next hurdles to a semblance of normalcy. In her case, it was the egg that came first. She had banished eggs from her kitchen when Max was killed. It was how she had managed to survive Sundays without him.

Sunday mornings had once been her favorite time of the week. It was only then that not waking up in Max's arms made her smile. The sight of his empty pillow meant one glorious thing: Paris was bubbling in the oven.

Shelley had fallen in love with Max's baked eggs and cheese almost as soon as she had fallen in love with Max himself. They were in Paris when he first made the dish for her and the tour group she had hastily joined. Since then each forkful tasted like that morning—warm, buttery, and bursting with full-fat promise. But Max was gone, and now Sundays coated her mouth with ash and gritty bits of grief."*

- p.8, Before Ever After

Happy Valentine's Day, campers. However cliché or cheesy we may think the day is, it's still a good reminder to hug our loved ones a little tighter - for no reason other than that they're there.

*Copyright © 2011 by Samantha Sotto-Yambao