We meet again

𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒

After the bathroom I went to the kitchen to pour myself some more wine 'cause I definitely needed it.

I leaned against the bar with my glass in hand and pulled out my phone, I started reading some emails and checking messages from the movie group. My social battery was already a little drained so I needed to recharge.

"Oh, hi, I thought no one was here," Elizabeth commented walking into the kitchen with a glass of cocktail in her hand. "Hey, don't worry, I'll leave so you'll be calm," I said taking my glass and heading out of the kitchen. "No, stay," she said urgently and stopped me, "I don't mind your presence". "Okay," I headed back to where I was before her arrival.

I turned my attention back to my phone, taking occasional sips of wine.

"So... now will you tell everyone that we met in that bookstore?," Elizabeth spoke up after a while. "Excuse me?" I lifted my head from the phone to look at her. "I was asking if that's what we are now, two people who met in a bookstore a few weeks ago," she repeated her question approaching me. "We stopped being who we were a long time ago, Elizabeth," I told her with a hint of pain in my voice.

We stopped being who we were 14 years ago, I fell in love with someone else and moved on with my life, but it never really stopped hurting, I never forgot what I felt when we first kissed under that tree where we spent our evenings talking about endless things that kids talk, the first time she took my hand under the table at a family dinner, didn't matter that we were two simple girls and then two simple teenagers. I guess that even though we didn't last our whole lives together and much less than we thought, she will always be my first love.

"Don't call me that," she complained almost whispering. "Call you what?" I tilted my head with a questioning look. "Elizabeth," she said matter-of-factly. "That's your name, that's what you call yourself," I replied in confusion furrowing my eyebrows. "But not to you, you've never called me that," her crystalline gaze staring at me. "Things change," I ducked my head. "Harper...," Elizabeth took my hand and with her finger on my chin lifted my head, our gazes met, "for me nothing has changed," she confessed looking down at my lips, rubbing my hand with her thumb.

I cleared my throat and took a step backward away from Elizabeth.

"Hey girls, I was looking for you like crazy," Scar arrived at the perfect time. Elizabeth and I turned our attention to the pregnant woman standing at the entrance to the kitchen with a huge smile on her face. "We're going to open some presents, want to come?," Scar asked looking at us. "Uh, sure, I'll pour myself some more wine and catch up with you," I gave her a half smile. "Me too," Elizabeth added. "Okay, I'll wait for you over there," Scarlett smiled and left, leaving Elizabeth and I alone once again.

"I'm-". "Time has passed, Elizabeth," I interrumpted her, "we are no longer teenagers, much less the same people we were, you have a great husband and I have a wonderful girlfriend, so please, now let's just be that, two people who met in a bookstore," I looked straight into her emerald eyes, the same ones that once looked at me with all the love in the world and the next day like I was nothing.

"And what about that night in New York?," she tilted her head delicately, looking at me with a more penetrating gaze. "What about it?," I clenched my jaw. "We'll also pretend that didn't happen?," she closed the space between us a little more, her breath touching my skin, my body trembling and my heart pounding harder and harder.

"Robbie knows?," I took a step back. "Does Flo knows?," she gave me a half smile as she repeated my question. "That was a mistake," I took my gaze off her and started playing with the rings on my fingers. "Was it really? Or do you want to convince yourself of that," she began to challenge me. "Scar is waiting for us, we should go to the living room," I turned quickly walking out of the kitchen and away from the situation I was in.