The girl under the willow tree

[Seven]

(Something like this but probably a little simpler, and rustic)

Emery POV

I sat waiting in one of my favourite coffee shops just round from the hotel, I come here basically every time I'm in London but I haven't been in a while.

I look down at the time 11:26, 4 minutes. I am totally not neurotic I just didn't want to be late, I was nervous so what, I didn't know what I was going to say to her but I really wanted to talk to her again.

"Hey," I turned my head to see her wearing a light brown sweater and blue jeans, she gave me a small smile before sitting down across from me.

"Hey," I replied smiling, for some reason I was relieved she was here.

We kind of sat in silence until our orders came and then she spoke up.

"I feel like I should apologise," she said after a while.

"For what?" I ask already knowing why but I was kinda shocked that she said it.

"For leaving, I don't really know how you feel about it but I don't want you to blame it on yourself or anything just in case you do. I mean it was selfish of me to leave but without actually saying goodbye to you, I just left without warning. It's not like I had a bad time on our date because It was one of the best memories I have, I just was really unhappy and not in a good place." She started to ramble on about everything and it made me sad listening to it. "But I'm really sorry for leaving and hurting you because even if you don't admit it I think I hurt you, and hurting you was the last thing I wanted to do. I mean I left you a note but that's not really enough, I left everything I knew and my family mu-,"

"You can stop now," I said, there was tears starting to form in her eyes. "I don't blame myself, I mean I did but not now. I also don't blame you or anyone else, if anyone I blame the universe but I don't want the universe to bite me in the ass later on." She smiled and wiped her eyes on her sleeve. "It was a tough position you were put in, well both of us were put in, but you did hurt me, you were the first person I really loved. It's fine though it's in the past." I smiled at her but she still looked broken inside.

"I'm so sorry," was all she said.

"I said I'm fine, but I wrote you some letters. After you left all I wanted to do was speak to you, I wished I could talk with you so I wrote you letters. There is hundreds of them, maybe more." I reached into my bag and pulled out 2 letters. "This is the first one, modified though I changed it a bit, but pretty much the exact words." I handed her the first letter. "And this one is, the one you gave to me. Well the one you taped onto my car that I didn't see for 2 days after you left because I didn't use it for a while." I placed the second letter on the table in front of her.

"You still have this," she sounded amazed but also saddened by the look of it.

"Yeah, I travel with it, it's a reminder of you, of home." I placed the letter back into my bag.

"I have one question," She looked at the letter in her hand, "did you ever try to look for me?"

I sighed and nodded

"For over 2 years after you left, eventually everyone around me had forgotten. Eventually I stopped, I always wanted to speak with you again to see you but I never found you which is weird because I have been to London a lot."

"Is there any news from home I should know?" She looked at me but not into my eyes.

"I don't think I should be the one to tell you this but, your father is gone. He passed away from heart failure, 3 years ago."