Micah walked past the oddly pleasant smelling aisle lined with shelves upon shelves of dishwashing detergent, cleaning formulas, hand soaps, scented oils, and fabric softeners. It sure beat the stench of dozens of Navy men in sweat-drenched clothing, running back and forth between the giant airplanes in the hangar for the routine checks. She had her eyes glued to the large signs, suspended above by cords of metal, which listed the items in each aisle.

When she read the word 'cookies,' Micah took a sharp turn, smiling to herself on how stupid she, a grown woman, must have looked grubbing for raspberry-almond shortbread thumbprints. Her sharp gaze scanned the shelves, looking for the familiar sack-like bag containing her favorite cookies. She flipped her loose tresses of hair to one side of her shoulder, kicked out one leg, and stared at the shelves. She stood there for awhile, eyes shifting back and forth, hoping that somehow when she looked back at the line of boxes she would get a different result.

"Can't decide?" A deep voice asked from behind her.

Micah was half lost in thought but chuckled and replied, "Yeah. I don't think they sell thumbprint cookies anymore."

"Really?" The voice was drenched in amusement; reaching out an arm to grab a white sack with a golden-brown raspberry thumbprint cookie printed on the front cover with powdered sugar flaked over it.

"Oh," She turned toward the man, her eyes glued to the bag that he held. "Thanks."

"No problem," the man replied.

Micah kept her eyes stuck to the bag of thumbprint cookies before she snapped out of it and took the bag.

"Sorry," Micah blushed. "These just… I don't know. I've been having them for a long time."

"I know, Micah."

"How do you-," Micah stopped, finally looking into the man's face.

He stood a good six inches taller than her with short, dark brown hair. He wore a light blue button down shirt tucked into his khakis that were cinched with a belt. But it was his blue eyes that Micah couldn't forget.

"Philip!" she cried.

"It's about time you recognized me," Philip chuckled. "I have to admit, thumbprint cookies are still my favorite. After all these years; I can't believe it."

"Yeah," Micah mumbled, slowly nodding.

Philip's words had sent her mind back to all those years ago. He was eighteen and she was fifteen. They had met in biology class. He had been one of the suave seniors that would twist around in his seat to pick on the girl behind him.

That's how Micah meet Philip Blake.

Over time, they became good friends. Being a senior, Philip had asked Micah, who was a sophomore, to prom. After he graduated, they kept in contact and still went out when they could. When Micah left high school, she confided in Philip her secret dream to be in the Navy. He was completely against it, but Micah brushed it off, knowing that he'd come around eventually.

She went to a party once when Philip was in his senior year of college. Before he had gotten there, Micah talked with his friends and found out that he had been getting kind of close with another girl on campus. With a little pressing, she found out that Philip had been getting drunk and sleeping with other girls at frat parties. She did the only thing she would manage to do to show how he had hurt her, ignored all his advances to talk or spend time. He protested that he had never even looked at another girl when he was with her.

She finally found it in herself to let the whole issue sink, finding it in herself to love and care about him even if it meant that he would be happy with someone else other than her, but by then, both of them were seeing new people. Philip never budged from his stance whenever Micah brought up the supposed cheating fiasco. They both came to believe that Philip's friends were lying, which was not too hard to believe since they had since double-crossed him more than a few times. Once they both graduated college, they went their separate ways.

That was around twelve years ago.

"Micah?" Philip asked, waving his hand in front of her face."Hell-oo?"

"Sorry," Micah jumped, snapping out of her daydream. "I was just… remembering."

"I never cheated on you, Micah," Philip murmured, knowing exactly what she was remembering, knowing that it still haunted her. "Truth be told, I thought that I was going to spend the rest of my life with you."

Micah's breath hitched.

After so long, he was still the man she fell in love with all those years ago. He was one of her most serious relationships, and she never forgot the look in his eyes when he was completely serious. Philip had had that look when he asked her to prom, when he asked her to stay with him while he was in college even though they knew it would be hard, when he asked her if she wanted to marry him…

Micah suddenly reached up and grabbed Philip's face, kissing him impulsively. She remembered how his lips had felt against hers that first night under the awning of the café they had gone to for their second date. They had been laughing and they had looked at each other through their giggling and went silent. Philip leaned down and picked Micah up for that first kiss.

But this wasn't a romantic cafe under the bright moon, this was a public supermarket.

"Micah…" He quickly broke off the kiss, nudging her to take a few steps back. "This isn't… It's not like years ago. You can't live in the past."

She took a step back, waves of embarrassment washing over her. Her eyes hurriedly looked down at his left hand and she was half-angry and half-relieved to see that he didn't wear a wedding ring.

"You're not married though,"

"I… It's not like that. I don't like to wear the ring. I just-,"

"Philip?" a sweet voice asked from behind Micah. "There you are! Penny and I have been looking for you everywhere."

Micah turned around and saw a flawless woman with long blonde hair. She smiled at Micah and went to stand next to Philip. A small girl peeked out from behind her knee, clutching her hand and hiding behind her.

"Sarah, this is Micah. We knew each other in school," Philip tried to casually introduced the two, but the interaction was clearly awkward and strained.

"Hi, I'm his wife," Sarah told Micah, extending her hand with a childish grin."I remember him mentioning you a few times. He said you were in the Navy."

Micah paused for a moment, and then took Sarah's hand in her own while saying, "Nice to meet you. And yeah, I'm a fighter pilot."

"Wow. Thank you for risking your life for our country." Sarah smiled as she looked behind her to the little girl. "This is Penny, our daughter. Sorry, she's shy."

Micah nodded, feigning a pleasant smile, and watched as Philip switched his bag of thumbprint cookies to his other hand. Penny peeked out from behind her mother and saw the cookies. Her eyes went wild as she leapt forward. The little girl jumped to try to take the bag from his father, but Philip's arm stood well above hers

.

"Daddy, Daddy!" Penny exclaimed. "You found them!"

Philip laughed to Micah, "We've been coming here for a while and getting these, but they haven't had them for the past week or so. Penny has a bit of an addiction to them now, and I guess this place restocked them." Philip put the bag into the basket he had in one hand, she hadn't noticed it, and leaned down next to his daughter, who had his pale blue eyes. "You can't have any until we get home, sweetie. You know, it was actually Micah who gave me my first thumbprint cookie."

"Really?" Penny gaped, straining her head up to gaze up into Micah's face with awe.

"Really," Her father confirmed.

Penny turned to Micah and smiled. Micah smiled back, knowing something was stinging in the back of her mind when she looked at the girl, but she couldn't figure out what it was.

"Well, we'd better get home," Philip mentioned, placing one hand lightly against his wife's elbow, trying to lead her away.

"It was nice to finally meeting you, Micah," Sarah grinned, taking the basket from her husband.

"Nice to meet you too," She returned."Philip needs someone like you."

"We both like to think so," was her cheery reply. It made Micah sick to the stomach to hear her voice. "You're always welcome to come for dinner whenever you have a night off."

"I'd like that," Micah truthfully said, glancing at her former love.

Penny grabbed Sarah's hand again and dragged her towards the register. Philip stood for a moment looking into Micah's eyes, making sure that his family had disappeared down the line of closed registers.

She blinked away tears."I like that name; Penny,"

"I'm sorry, Micah," He furrowed his eyebrows in concern and regret. "I wish things were different between us."

"Why don't you wear your ring?"

"I… Sarah and I… I should go. Well, goodbye, Micah. It was good seeing you after all this time. Stay safe, hear me? I'm holding you to that dinner in the near future." He then turned on his heel and walked down the aisle after his wife and daughter.

Micah held her bag close to her as she blinked back tears. She remembered talking with Philip about baby names as she played with her engagement ring. They had wanted a baby as soon as they were married. They both brought up the name Penny at the same time, and from then on, they knew that they would name their daughter Penelope Blake.

But that's not what hurt Micah the most. She turned to her cart and placed the bag down carefully. Studying the pictured cookie on the front of the package, Micah thought about eating them with Philip as much as they could until they doubled over, about to vomit. He had even snuck them into class for them to eat in case they were about to go to sleep because of how boring the teacher's lectures on stem-cell research was. Micah leaned against the cart as another memory stabbed her in the brain.

She remembered the day she had gone out onto the roof of the high school on the day of graduation. It had been hard to stay in contact with Philip, as he was a few hours' drive away. He had called her and said he couldn't make it. But there he was, sitting in his car in the parking lot, and she was on the roof at his request. He had called her from his phone, instructing her to close her eyes and to only open them when he told her to. Micah had felt a tap on her shoulder. When she turned around, there he was, on his knees holding flowers and a ring box.

"Micah Harriet Basset," Philip started. "Will you marry me?"

"Yes, of course!" Micah cried as she tried to cover her wide grin with the back of her hand. "But don't say my middle name ever again,"

He chuckled, sliding the ring on her finger and standing up to pressed his mouth against hers. When they pulled away, Philip smiled and leaned his forehead against hers."You know I love you, right?"

"I know," she returned his smile, tilting her head for another quick kiss.

"Good. Don't you forget it."