The Rooms We Save

By Timothy Johnson

They never kissed. It was still an affair.

Elise Vann has spent years building a life sturdy enough to trust. When her teenage daughter sends her to a climbing gym, Elise expects nothing more than a new way to be bad at something. Instead she meets Jonah Mercer, the younger instructor who notices every fear she hides-and the competence everyone else takes for granted.

What begins as instruction becomes friendship, private language, and the first conversation each of them wants every day. On the wall, Elise learns to trust her body. Away from it, she and Jonah begin imagining an ordinary future neither has asked the other to promise.

As wanting becomes a choice with consequences, Elise must decide whether the self she has recovered can exist inside the life she already has-and what honesty will cost everyone who loves her.

A bittersweet novel about longing, loyalty, and the people who change us even when choosing them would cost too much.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0HDL9HB1J
• ISBN13: 9798191256467
• Release Date: August 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 236 Pages
• Weight: 0.71 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"