A backyard cookout. Music bumping, kids running around, grill smoke floating in the air. Laughter everywhere.

  Christopher stood near the edge of the patio, sipping a drink, watching Amina hold their goddaughter. She caught his eye and smiled. He smiled back — easy, whole.

  An old friend from college walked up beside him, eyes glancing between Christopher and Amina, then back again.

  “Yo… random question,” the friend said, smirking. “Whatever happened with you and Jewel? Everybody used to swear y’all were gonna end up together.”

  Christopher didn’t flinch. He didn’t get quiet or stare off into the past. He just chuckled.

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  “We had everything people in a relationship have,” he said. “Except the relationship.”

  The friend raised a brow. “So why didn’t y’all just date?”

  Christopher took a breath, glanced at Amina again — sunlight hitting her like a sign he’d finally arrived where he was always meant to be.

  Then he turned back and said simply:

  “Because love, when it’s one-sided, isn’t love. It’s waiting. And I stopped waiting.”

  The friend nodded slowly, not needing more.

  Christopher walked toward the woman who chose him without hesitation, whose love didn’t come with conditions or confusion. The one who saw him — not as an option, but as the answer.

  Behind him, the ghost of a “what if” dissolved into nothing.

  And for the first time in his life, Christopher wasn’t haunted.

  He was home.