Like I wasn’t something temporary.
“Your lines are clean because you care too much,” he told me once, standing behind me while I worked. “Most people rush. You don’t. That’s your strength—just don’t let it turn into hesitation.”
I held onto that.
I still do.
That shop… it wasn’t just a job.
It was everything.
The people. The stories. The way someone would sit in my chair carrying something heavy, something they didn’t always say out loud—and leave a little lighter.
I met so many people there.
Good people.
Broken people.
People who trusted me with pieces of themselves they didn’t trust anyone else with.
And somehow… they trusted me.
I was buildingsomething.
I didn’t have to fight to prove I belonged every second I just… did.
Cody made it feel that way.
Like I had a place.
Like I had family.
I remember laughing there.
Actually laughing.
Not forcing it. Not thinking about what comes next. Just being in it.
I was happy.
I didn’t realize how much at the time.
I thought it would always feel like that.
But it didn’t.
It changed.
And I can see it now clearer than I ever did before.
The day he walked in.
Izzy.
At first, he was nothing.
Just another client.
