I sit at the same corner table of the same Upper West Side bar every chill autumn Sunday afternoon drinking the same bourbon listening to the same melancholy piano. And every chill autumn Sunday afternoon I realize the same thing—that she’s never going to walk through the door again.

Nick Young is a retired award-winning CBS News Correspondent. In addition to 50-Word Stories, his writing has appeared in dozens of reviews, journals and anthologies. His first novel, “Deadline,” was published in the Fall of 2023. He lives outside Chicago.