It Starts with Us by Colleen Hoover

Chapter Fifteen
Atlas
When I was in the military, I was stationed with a friend who had family
from Boston. His aunt and uncle were getting ready to retire and wanted to
sell their restaurant. It was called Milla’s, and when I visited it on leave one
year, I absolutely fell in love with the place. I can say it was the food, or the
fact that it was located in Boston, but the truth is, I fell in love with it because
of the preserved tree growing in the center of the main dining room.
The tree reminded me of Lily.
If anything is going to remind someone of their first love, trees are
probably the last thing you want as a reminder. They’re everywhere. Which
is probably why I’ve thought about Lily every day since I was eighteen, but
that could also be because I still, to this day, feel like I owe her my life.
I’m not sure if it was the tree, or the fact that the restaurant came almost
fully stocked and staffed, but I felt a pull to buy it when it became available.
It wasn’t my goal to own a restaurant right out of the military. I had planned
to work as a chef to gain experience, but when this opportunity presented
itself, I couldn’t walk away from the prospect. I used the money I saved up
from my time as a Marine, and I secured a business loan, bought the
restaurant, changed the name, and created a whole new menu.
Sometimes I feel guilty for the success Bib’s has had—like I haven’t paid
my dues. I didn’t just inherit the staff, who already knew what they were
doing, but I inherited customers as well. I didn’t build it from the ground up,
which is why I feel a heavy amount of imposter syndrome when people
congratulate me on the success of Bib’s.
That’s why I opened Corrigan’s. I don’t know that I was trying to prove
anything to anyone other than myself, but I wanted to know that I could do it.
I wanted the challenge of creating something from nothing and watching it
flourish and grow. Like what Lily wrote in her journal about why she liked
growing things in her garden when we were teenagers.