“Well, don’t tell anyone. I have an image to uphold,” I smirked, trying to disguise my chuckle as amusement at his absurd comment rather than at my own foolishness.
I took their order and asked Thomas to switch places so I could make their drinks and chat. It didn’t take much effort. I could barely sneak in a word in Alex’s rant about how he had already forgotten how to work after the beach, and how his suits felt too tight.
“So, where’s Luke?” I asked, since they always moved as a group of gazelles, and he was clearly missing. Maybe he was sick or working remotely.
“Hard at work, I’m afraid,” Alex said.
“Mmhm” was all I could manage. It wasn’t like he had an obligation towards me. Or to this coffee place. I believe they have a kitchen in their workplace. Maybe he wasn’t avoiding me. Maybe he just wasn’t that interested in me anymore.
I performed my besteverything’s-back-to-normalsmile as we chit-chatted about their return and Ava firing a kitchen staff member on the first day back. I feared her as much as I loved her.
I put four cups of coffee and scribbled a name on one of them. Ethan ended his call and raised an eyebrow at the cup with Luke’s name.
“On the house,” I said, tucking a small folded paper slip between the cup and the holder. Ethan gave me a sympathetic smile as I slid forward the cinnamon-infused liquid.
I had to let him go.
The rest of the day flowed. Mostly, it was sleep-deprived students, clinging to double espressos and caramel macchiatos as they tried to survive the spring semester.
I went for a short break, leaving Thomas to handle things, though my body was there only in habit. My mind kept circling back to the thought that this was just another low point in a string of them, one more dip in the messy pattern of my life. But that’s okay because those never lasted. Something good would happen. It had to, by sheer logic.
I massaged my neck and closed my eyes, trying to meditate a bit. The city air was nowhere near as fresh as the one I’d spent the last two weeks in, but despite that, something calmed in me.
I returned inside just as the first raindrops tapped the windows, but within five minutes, it was full-on storming. I checked the weather app on my phone, which let me know that the storm was going to last all evening and half the night.
I could ask Thomas for a ride, and yet I hesitated. That familiar dark cloud of doubt about asking too much crept into my mind. But a small voice reminded me thatthere was a strength in asking for help.
Thomas might have had other plans, but it wasn’t because he didn’t want to. We were friends, and I knew he cared.
After hyping myself up for almost twenty minutes and finally asking him to take me home, he unsurprisingly agreed. A quiet pride washed over me, for getting through this tiny, ridiculous,totally insignificant thing created by my overdramatic, overthinking mind.
“Oh, by the way, somebody left this for you.”
Thomas handed me a tiny box wrapped in brown kraft paper and tied with a blue satin ribbon. I looked at him, confused, but he just shrugged his shoulders.
Why would somebody leave me a gift? And why not give it to me directly? I’ve been here for the past couple of hours. What if it was Jackson?
I swallowed, pushing my anxiety down, and tore open the box, when suddenly my heart froze. Nestled inside was a smooth, flat stone, and etched into its surface were two words.
Meeting you.
The weight of the moment hit me like a tidal wave, settling deep inside me. My mom’s birthday. Except for Mady, I’d told only...
Luke.
He remembered.
My gaze darted around the place, searching for him, but somehow I already knew he was gone. This was the first time he’d reached out since the trip.
Was it the highlight of his year, or the moment he regretted the most?
I turned the stone over in my palm, and the same words were etched there. Because for him, I was both.
A small, bitter laugh slipped out. And the thing was... I understood him completely.
Him wanting to protect me. Him wanting me.
Him knowing, in the quiet corners of his mind, that we’d never truly work.
