Strangers in the Storm ✔

Chapter 23: Closure

ROXANNE 

Roxanne hadn't expected she would be this nervous, not three months and another failed relationship after, but her heart still thudded uncomfortably as she waited for Mike in a café downtown.

The place was cute; intimate, filled with plants and air-conditioned. Roxanne sometimes wondered whether she would prefer working in a similar environment, but she liked the honesty the old-fashioned bars possessed. People came here to work, no one came for the comfort of liquor and dimmed lights.

She had just gotten her latte when a tall dark-haired man entered the café and joined her table. Mike looked exactly the same, with his neatly trimmed beard and clear, blue eyes, dressed in a suit even though his job didn't require it. However, Roxanne immediately felt something missing, something she couldn't quite pinpoint.

Mike was a handsome man, but there wasn't much else to it.

"Hey." He smiled, flashing his white teeth, "I'm glad you answered."

Roxanne nodded, "Me too."

He felt distant, somehow, like a stranger.

"How have you been?" Mike asked, raising his hand to call the waiter, "Still working in that bar?"

Roxanne arched her eyebrows, "It's been three months. I haven't become a nuclear physicist in the meantime."

"No, I know." Mike went through his short hair, probably out of habit. "Tell me what have you been up to."

Roxanne tilted her head to the side, not sure what to tell him, "Nothing much. What about you?"

Mike leaned forward, asserting his serious pose, and crossed his hands on the table. Roxanne knew this face well, this awful beginning. It was the same expression he had when he told her he didn't love her anymore and something about the similarity felt wrong.

"I've been thinking a lot." He began right as the waiter came to serve him. "Black coffee, please."

"Sure." The disinterested young man, probably a student, walked away with his order.

Roxanne waited for the continuation.

"As I was saying," Mike murmured, "I've been thinking a lot about us and how we handled the entire thing."

Roxanne squinted, "We?"

"Yes." Mike nodded quickly. "Now that some time has passed, I think we can talk about it openly."

"Talk." Roxanne took a sip of coffee.

"I messed up." Mike sighed. "I didn't realise what I had by my side on time and I let you go. I should have fought for you, for us."

"You should have." Roxanne murmured. "But you said it was too late for that. You know, when you told me you didn't love me anymore."

"I didn't mean that!" Mike's blue eyes jumped to her. "I was angry and dissatisfied and I wanted out."

"Oh, my, that sounds way better." Roxanne kept her expression neutral. "Has it suddenly occurred to you that you loved me after all?"

"Yes." Mike nodded as the waiter returned with his coffee. "Thanks."

"Sure." The young man walked away.

"Yes?" Roxanne asked. "Is it possible you realised you still loved me right when I stopped calling every day?"

Mike opened his mouth to speak, then halted as if changing his mind, and spoke, "I didn't realise how much losing you would hurt. And I know that makes me an idiot and I know I didn't know how to appreciate you, but..."