Recently, I’ve gotten back into reading thanks to my best friend Caroline. For those new to my stories, let me backtrack a little. Caroline and I instantly became friends when I first started working at Cinemark in May of 2022. We were both ushers, scheduled to clean theaters together, and quickly realized we shared the same sense of humor—that’s what sparked our forever friendship. Fast forward to now, every week we plan around our busy work schedules to hang out. Our routine usually involves grabbing lunch—most often McDonald’s, sometimes Chick-fil-A if we’re craving a change—then browsing books before heading back to my house, where we sit at opposite ends of my room playing games on our Nintendo Switches. It’s become a running joke that as soon as we set a hangout date, one of us asks, “Are we feeding our addiction today?” If the answer is yes, we hit a bookstore with the best intentions of limiting ourselves to one book each. But of course, we always end up breaking that promise and leaving with armfuls. For me, romance and fantasy have become my go-to genres. Caroline first introduced me to Laurie Gilmore, a New York Times bestselling author known for her small-town romance books. Her debut, The Pumpkin Spice Café, even won TikTok Shop’s “Book of the Year” in 2024. Her Dream Harbor series is filled with quirky townsfolk and charming, rugged men, and I’ve been hooked ever since. So, when I saw Laurie post on Instagram that she’d be touring to promote her newest release—with book signings included—I immediately told Caroline we had to go. We marked the date on our calendars and counted down the days. Last week, that moment finally came. We pulled into the parking lot of Half Price Books, both of us quietly panicking over the fact that we were about to meet our favorite author. It honestly felt surreal, like we had stepped into one of her novels. Inside, we joined a few girls from our book club and waited for the event to begin. Sitting through the Q&A, I felt like my feet were gliding—I kept thinking someone would have to pinch me to bring me back down to reality. Finally, it was our turn to meet her. Standing there with our books in hand, ready to be signed, it hit me just how far this little “addiction” of ours had brought us. What started as fast food lunches, bookstore trips, and late-night gaming had led to this incredible moment—one we got to share together. And that’s the best part: no matter how many books we read or how many games we play, the real story is the friendship Caroline and I continue to write, chapter by chapter.
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