A Nice Girl Like You -

"There is no Wickham Lane in Oakhaven," Lucy muttered, her thumb tracing the embossed gold on the journal cover.

She found the entrance behind a rusted iron gate obscured by ivy. The key turned with a click that felt like a heartbeat.

The Midnight Gallery was not a museum; it was a sanctuary of "lost things." The air smelled of rain and old paper. Inside, a man with ink-stained fingers and a crooked tie looked up from a desk. "You’re late," he said, not unkindly. A Nice Girl Like You

Everything changed on a Tuesday afternoon when Lucy received a package by mistake. It wasn't the ergonomic keyboard she’d ordered. Inside the velvet-lined box was a vintage, leather-bound journal and a heavy brass key with a tag that simply read: The Midnight Gallery. 14 Wickham Lane.

Lucy Thorne lived her life by a series of color-coded spreadsheets. She had a five-year plan for her career in forensic accounting, a three-year plan for a mortgage, and a weekly meal prep schedule that never deviated from "Meatless Monday." In the small town of Oakhaven, she was known as the girl who always remembered birthdays, never parked over the line, and consistently wore beige because it was "sensible." Her best friend, Mia, called her "The Human Protractor." "There is no Wickham Lane in Oakhaven," Lucy

The man, whose nameplate read Julian , didn't take the box. "We don't make mistakes, Lucy. That journal belongs to a version of you that hasn't happened yet."

For the first time in her life, Lucy didn't check her watch. She didn't think about her five-year plan. She looked at the blank journal in her hands and realized it wasn't a mistake—it was an invitation. "What do I do first?" she asked. The Midnight Gallery was not a museum; it

He stepped toward a canvas covered in a black sheet and pulled it back. It wasn't a painting; it was a mirror, but the reflection wasn't beige. The Lucy in the glass wore a deep emerald coat. She was laughing. She was standing on a pier in a city Lucy didn’t recognize, holding a ticket to somewhere far beyond Oakhaven.