Spiraled ⚪⭐⚪⭐ (A Brollins Novel)✔

EPISODE TWENTY-EIGHT

Café Masters. Los Angeles, California.

"What would you like to order?"

Across the near deserted table, save for the vase in the very center with flowers which looks to be winding up its lifespan, Mercedes grins sweetly, head inclining towards him to signal something relevant. "You know what I like, Colby."

Colby nods his head once with a slight smile and looks up at the waiter standing at their table with a pen and a notebook drawn out, ready and waiting to take their orders. "A cup of coffee for me, please and an espresso for the lady."

Mercedes's eyes the retracting figure of the waiter for a moment before turning back to Colby's direction. With her fingers laced beneath her chin, her smile doubled up with even more sweetness if possible, Colby forces a smile for her benefit, for his own sake because he doesn't have the faintest clue as to how he should introduce the very subject he wants to discuss with her.

Mercedes, ever the most oblivious, speaks before he can, interrupting his train of thoughts. "Thanks for playing along. To whatever. Just wanted this breakfast of ours to be as light and friendly as possible. It wasn't my intention if I came off as a desperate woman acting like the girlfriend of the man who doesn't love me back in front of the waiter."

Colby can't grasp why but somehow he discerns Mercedes's words isn't some light teasing but an accusation. He won't put it past her that she's purposely acting unaware and innocent around him only to explode later when he gathers up the courage to get straight to the heart of the matter. He won't be shocked either if she tells him this very second she already knows what he's going to talk to her about. He checks his phone to see more messages from Rebecca but immediately switches it off and puts it back down on the table. "I didn't see it like that, Mercedes. You're anything but a desperate woman."

Her smile grows so bright and wide Colby is certain her cheeks must be hurting. "And you aren't a man who doesn't love me back, are you?"

"What?"

"I'm sorry." She chuckles a humourless chuckle and waves her hands through the air, as if shooing away invisible, evil spirits or whatever unknown topic she was gradually trailing into a second back. "Don't mind me, Colby. I didn't get much sleep last night. That must be the reason for which I'm speaking a bunch of nonsense."

Colby only forces out a smile, in both understanding and uncertainty. Sighing, Mercedes continues, "On a serious note, I'm happy to know you still recall the must mundane or not so, things about me. Like how I yearn for a strong coffee early a morning to fully wake me up. You can still see through that I'm not really having a great day. It's touching."

"I can tell you were crying with how teary and red your eyes are," Colby points out. "It's hard not to notice."

Her head cocks in feigned amusement. "Can you blame me? I've had my boyfriend accuse me of drugging him and raping him, when all I wanted was to have a bit of intimacy with him. It's hard not to be sorrowful after all that."

Colby ignores her jab, not looking forward to discussing the issue about the beer when there were much more important things to talk about. "I don't forget things so easily Mercedes. I still remember the things you like. The things which makes you happy. Coffee, wine, tennis, K-pop music. I'll never forget all those things and the others. You were a friend way before you became my girlfriend and for that, you'll always have a place in my heart."

"That's why I love you," Mercedes whispers back almost sadly, fondly, as if she's going to lose it any moment from now. The sheer melancholy in her voice rattles him to the core. This was never going to be easy, that he was very much aware of but sitting at the café with a woman he has loved for many years under the pretense of having a mere breakfast but in reality, about to shatter any dreams or hope of a future together she may still have, is more than overwhelming.