A sip of love

Chapter 1: Exhausted

Samuel is tired. Not just tired, he is exhausted; from his work as well as his life. He works in the biggest law firm of the town. He is one of the best lawyers there with the highest number of wins across the state and has a big waiting list for clients wishing to hire him. He was recently offered a partnership at his firm as well, making him a part owner. In spite of all this success in his career, he is exhausted of the monotony this life has brought him.

Being a criminal lawyer, he is used to seeing worst in the humans. He has dealt with the worst possible cases ranging from murder to rape and everything in between. He is adapted to such scenarios and is really good at not letting them affect him personally on most days. But today was a difficult day for him. The case he was dealing with was of an uncle raping his own 8-year-old niece. To top it off, he and his lawyer were trying to spin it off as if the girl had seduced him by wearing a tank top and shorts to bed. But the worse was that they had enough money and power to actually suppress the case. Samuel was trying his best to not let it happen, but he knew it was a futile effort.

He had to deal with all this, while dealing with the loss of his girlfriend. He had thought that at least his personal life was going good. He had a beautiful and charming girl by his side who loved him and whom he was fond of as well. At 35 years, he thought that since he was set in his career, it was time to settle down in life too. That's why, since he had a bad day, he thought to go home early with flowers for his girl and spend some quality time with her. But what he found there brought pain rather than peace. In the hopes to surprise his partner, he walked in on her having sex with another man. And not just any other man, but his own childhood friend. A friend whom he considered as good as his brother.

They did not notice him immediately and Samuel was too shocked to react. He was trying to convince himself that it was not real. But no matter what excuse he used, his eyes were witnessing something, that his brain could not deny. They went at it for another few minutes, before he cleared his throat loudly to gather his voice again. They both froze in that moment and turned to look at the door straight at Samuel. They were frightened, expecting a screaming match or some sort of fight. But instead, what they received left them speechless.

Samuel: (in a calm and collected voice but with dead eyes): When both of you are done, please leave my house. I'm going out and when I come back by tomorrow morning, I don't want either of you here. Also.... don't try to contact me ever again. I don't need any explanations from either of you.

With this he threw the flowers on the ground, turned around and walked out the door of his own apartment. His so called friend and girlfriend were calling him, trying to explain, but he did not hear a single word and just kept walking with no destination in his mind. He felt like he was surrounded by a fog, where he was standing still and the world was passing by him. He kept walking wherever his feet took him. He was thinking of anything and everything, looking for any red flags in their relationships, or any mistakes on his part that led his girl to stray away like this. All while he was trying hard not to actually think of anything. Even though he had a turmoil in his mind, he had a blank look on his face.

He walked for a long time until, it started raining heavily. It felt like even the heaven was crying for him, while he just kept walking in a surreal fashion. He finally woke up from his stupor when the rain started turning into a storm. He saw around and found himself in an unfamiliar neighborhood. He saw a small Indian restaurant and walked towards it in the hopes to find some shelter and warmth.

As soon as he entered, he was welcomed with a sweet cinnamon scent that led him down another bitter-sweet memory lane. He remembered it like yesterday, where he had experienced this scent for the first time. A girl from the past always had this smell. She was a beauty like no other. 

A/n: Thank you for reading. Please do give it a heart if you like it.