Stay ✔︎

Chapter 13 (Pt I)

CHAPTER 13 (PART I)
THE NIGHT THEY MET

[One year ago]

"IT WAS AROUND HERE, I SWEAR," Luisa exclaimed for the fourth time that night, Torrey trailing behind her, scanning the unfamiliar surrounding with increasing suspicion.

"We've been walking around the same block for the past half an hour, Luisa. You can admit you're lost,"

"I am not," she scoffed, turning around to face the unnaturally gorgeous woman, shaking her head, "I know the diner's here somewhere," she spun around and started walking again, determined to find the place.

"You know maybe we can go back–,"

"Ha, I found it," Luisa said at the same time, snapping her fingers and then stopped in her tracks, Torrey's words only registering in her mind then—shit. Eyes wide, she turned to face Torrey, "Um, what were you saying?" Be cool, be cool, be cool.

Torrey's eyes swept over Luisa before looking past her, obviously at the diner they'd been looking for and the latter had finally found, "Oh, you found the place. Cool," she nodded.

"Yeah, I did," Luisa waved her hand—that didn't matter a bit, "What were you saying?" she repeated her question.

"Oh, it's nothing," she shook her head, and then took in a breath, shivering slightly, "We should go inside, it's cold," and walked past Luisa.

Luisa groaned to herself internally. Was she going to invite her over to her place? And if she were after all, why did that invite sound so exciting for Luisa? It shouldn't be right.

"Well, are you coming or not?" Luisa heard Torrey call her from the entrance of the diner.

She nodded, "Yeah," and followed behind her.

It was nothing—just a small, simple diner. Luisa had come out the day before to clear her head, all the hectic wedding preparations, people sprinkled at every corner had gotten to her and she just needed to step away for a bit to just breathe at least. And that was how she had first found the diner.

The food was good and it was pretty much the only diner available around the area as far as she was aware. Both of them sat across each other, and ordered their food when a waiter approached them. They didn't talk much, just assessed the place, and every now and then exchanged small, subtle glances.

Luisa had pretty much sobered up by then and was painfully aware of everything around them and the woman before her and everything about her and how her presence affected her so much it was bordering on ridiculousness. There was only one person who had ever made her feel that way and even then Luisa didn't think she had felt this much.

This felt like a whole new territory compared to what she had gone through before. She pressed a thumb to her palm and rubbed the spot, trying and failing to calm her nerves. Fortunately, they didn't take long to be served and Luisa slowly exhaled, at least now she had something to do instead of just sitting there and freaking out over nothing and everything.

"Is it bad?" Torrey suddenly asked.

Luisa looked up, confused. She hadn't even begun to eat her food, and had only picked up her spoon and fork.

"What?"

"That we're eating out, instead of food from the wedding?" Luisa sensed an underlying tone of mockery behind her question and so she assumed she was only kidding.