Julieta Rivera noticed the empty shelves as soon as she stepped into her apartment.

He had taken every single game, every manga volume she’d bought for him. All the hobbies they had shared, all the time spent together—it was gone.

It wasn’t fair. He had called off the wedding, then stripped away the things he loved most. She couldn’t understand how he could be so selective, choosing the games and the books over her. He had said he loved her too, but in the end, he left her behind. His torn-up baseball cap meant more to him than it did to her.

At thirty-five, she had given him so much of her life. They had been together since Freshman year. She couldn’t even remember who she was before him. All of her happiest memories were tied to him.

Her mother insisted he just had cold feet and needed time to adjust to the idea of being a husband. But her father had warned her: he was the kind of man who would leave in secret. And her father had been right.

Her dad was right.

She needed to call him and tell him so. 

Her dad answered right away.

“Why don’t you and you go on a little shopping spree? We can visit the old store.”

She agreed, mostly because she didn’t know what else to do in an apartment full of empty spaces. After locking the door, Julieta lingered outside the building for nearly twenty minutes, shifting her weight from one foot to the other, until she finally saw her dad’s familiar red truck pull up. The paint had faded, the bumper was dented, but to her, it looked like a carriage, ready to whisk her off to a happily-ever-after.

He hugged her the moment she climbed in. It was comforting, solid, the kind of hug that said I’m here. She didn’t speak because she was afraid that if she did, the tears would come too fast to stop.

For nearly an hour, they drove in silence. The world blurred past until the familiar neon glow appeared in the distance: Casa Digital. 

This had been their place. The only store that sold Spanish-language games when she was a kid. Her dad spoke English just fine, but he always said that following the on-screen dialogue in English was harder, and that's why he preferred to purchase Spanish copies of video games and films. 

Nowadays, it wasn’t necessary—anyone could just change the language setting—but this store had meant a lot to them. 

Once her dad realized she loved video games as much as he did, they bonded over them.  Naturally, they would spend Saturday afternoons at the store. 

Julieta always suspected that, between the two of them, they had singlehandedly kept the shop afloat during the Great Recession.