Chapter 128: The Pros and Cons

The desk lamp cast long shadows across Olivia's studio as she hunched over a well-worn notebook. Two columns of neat handwriting filled the page, headed respectively with a name: Mark and Nathan. Olivia's pen poised over the paper, ready to add yet another point to the ever-growing listing. She let out a deep sigh, setting the pen down and leaning back into the chair. The clock on her wall read 2:37 AM, but sleep was to be nowhere near her mind. It was this list, this impossible comparison of two men and two potential futures, that had captured her mind and had for days now. "Alright, Olivia," she muttered to herself, picking up the pen again. "Concentrate. What else?" She wrote under Nathan's, "Pushes me out of my comfort zone." Under Mark's, "Provides a sense of home and stability." Olivia stared at the two columns, the stark contrast between them a visualization of her inner struggle. Nathan's list was rife with words like "passion," "adventure," and "artistic inspiration." Mark