“Can you hand me a hammer?” Ezra asked, looking behind him at his 22-year-old daughter. She was standing there, ready to hand over whatever he asked for as he built a shelf into the wall.
“Maybe this isn’t going to work here,” Daisy said. “This wood is too old. I think it may be rotting.”
Ezra looked at her sternly, running a hand through his curly salt and pepper hair. “No,” he stressed. “We are building this shelf and it’s going here.”
“Okay,” Daisy said meekly, deciding to drop it. She bent down and picked up the hammer from the floor, handing it to her father.
Aria gave birth to Daisy in 2017, a happy surprise, and a year later, the small family eloped to Iceland to get married. It wasn’t long before Aria landed an incredible publishing job in Boston and the three of them made the move to the city. Ezra decided to sell The Brew, not wanting to manage it from hours away. Nevertheless, his dream of owning another cafe and bookshop never dissipated. Aria suggested that the three of them open another store in Boston, one that they could design all their own and would belong to their family, and if their children desired to, they would carry on the family business.
The Fitz Family Brew was a massive success, with many regulars who spent every morning in the quaint coffee shop. Everything was going well with the family, including the addition of a little boy, Arthur, many years later.
That was, until September 3rd, 2025, when Aria was driving four hours to New York to help out with a promotional tour for one of her authors. With his 7-month-old on his hip, Ezra bent down through the car window to give his wife a kiss goodbye. “Thank you so much for doing this,” Aria said. She knew what a handful their kids were with the two of them, she knew it was going to be even harder being alone with them for an entire week.
“You know there isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for you, right?” he said. “I can handle it.” Ezra picked up Arty’s hand, pretending to wave it. “Say bye bye to Mommy.”
The little boy giggled as his father moved his hand. Aria smiled sadly, not wanting to be away from her family for an entire week. She’d already said goodbye to her daughter five minutes ago, who barely cared because she was occupied reading a book about cats in her bedroom.
She put her keys in the ignition and started the car. “I love you,” she said.
“I love you, too,” he replied, leaning down to give her another kiss.
She backed away while Ezra continued to wave Arty’s little hand.
Ezra sent her plenty of photos during the course of the week, and she sent many selfies back. One day, they stopped. She never came home.
It was hard for the entire family. If dealing with two kids on his own for a week was hard, dealing with two kids on his own for the rest of his life would be even harder. Ezra had to deal with his grief while also dealing with his daughter constantly asking where Mommy was, even though she had attended her funeral and Ezra carefully explained that she wasn’t coming back. She was too young to understand. She knew she was coming back. Her mommy always came back for her. Why would her mommy leave her? she always asked. “I know Mommy is coming back.”
Ezra wished that Daisy were right, but she wasn’t. Unable to manage the business through this difficult time, the Fitz Family Brew closed for good. He never sold the building. It stood vacant and collected dust and mice for 14 years. He lived with an overwhelming sense of guilt the day he decided he couldn’t keep it open. The Brew was Aria’s favorite place to get away, to write, to read, to spend time with her children. Even though she had another job, the family business was like her third baby. Whenever he handed a cup of coffee over the counter to a customer, he wished he were handing the cup to Aria. She always came by for a coffee and a kiss before work. She never showed up again after September 3rd. He simply couldn’t go on without his favorite customer.
Until Daisy wanted to reopen it when she was in her early 20s. At first, he was absolutely against it. Daisy–who looked exactly like her mother, besides her blue eyes–handled the situation delicately. She tried not to push him to do it, until the moment she said “For Mom? She would be so happy to know we reopened it….”
He gave in. He couldn’t leave it vacant, knowing he made a promise to his first wife. “You know there isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for you, right?” The words echoed in his brain throughout the years while he raised his children.The words echoed in his brain, even after he married his second wife, and later divorced her. Whenever he wanted to give up, he knew he couldn’t. He made a promise. But he broke one of those promises when he closed the Brew, and he knew Daisy was right. It was time to move on. She had the same wisdom as her mother, even though she barely lived long enough to absorb any from her.
Ezra hammered the nails through the board, content when he was finished. While much of the Brew’s furniture needed to be replaced, he used the wood from Aria’s favorite chair from her favorite corner to make a bookshelf. When the two of them were done, they stood back and looked at it. He imagined his wife sitting in that corner in her favorite chair, reading a book to their daughter. He imagined his wife sitting in that chair, feeding a bottle to their son. He imagined her smiling and blowing a kiss where he stood behind the counter. A tear dropped down Ezra’s cheek and he quickly wiped it away. Without saying a word, his daughter hugged him as tightly as she could, and they wept together. Fourteen years later, and it never got easier.
Three weeks later, Aria’s Brew opened to the public. They named it after her, because it had always been hers. It was a success. When Daisy was on her way to one of her grad classes, she would stop in the coffee shop to visit her father. He gave her a cup of coffee and a kiss on the cheek every morning.
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