FALLING SLOWLY

12

"Then..." Mira says as she walks up to Andrew taking the cup of coffee from his hand. "Thank you"

They sip their coffee in a comfortable silence. While Mira seems to be enjoying the silence, Andrew broke the ice.

"Is something wrong? You look like you have alot on your mind" Andrew says observing Mira's facial features.

"How can you tell?"

"I'm very good at reading people. So? Wanna lay your burden on me?"

Mira was in deep thoughts for a while but since Andrew seems to not remember his confession to her, she concluded to treat him as she used to.

"Should I? Then, here it goes" Mira sips her coffee. "My sister's boyfriend is quite sketchy"

"Sketchy?"

"Yes. He's doing something that if I tell my sister about it, she won't be able to move for days"

"How bad is it?"

"Hmm, let's say like smuggling drugs out of the country?"

Andrew nods his head. "And you are worried if you should tell your sister or not, right?"

"Yes, what should I do?"

"Just do whatever your guts tells you to do, how does that sound?"

"But I---"

"Whatever you feel is right is obviously the right thing to do. So let's not think about it anymore, okay?"

Mira let out a small smile. "Okay"

"So how do you feel now?"

"Better now that I've let that out of my chest. Thank you for hearing me out"

"Did you feel comfortable with me to share what's on your mind?"

Mira nods her head. "Surprisingly, yes"

Andrew let's out a painful smile. "This is bad. I wanted you to feel uncomfortable"

"What do you mean?"

"My confession. Are we never going to talk about that?"

Mira who was about to take another sip from her coffee, stilled. He remembers?.

"I thought you didn't remember it" Mira says meekly as Andrew's face spread out in a small grin.

"How would I not remember?"

"I mean, you never brought it up"

"That's because I didn't want you to feel pressured or uncomfortable around me"

Mira swallowed a gulp. "And now?"

"Now...you are too comfortable around me so I decided to bring up the matter lest I be thrown into the 'friends' zone"

Mira chuckles. "Actually, I envy you"

"How so?"

"You have the courage to confess your feelings" Mira looked down at her hands. "I never did"

"Should I be glad to hear that or not?"

Mira looked up at Andrew. "I'm just dealing with a childhood crush on my own. It's been going on for a while now"

"May I know how long?"

"10years"

Andrew's eyes widened. "Wow, 10years. Can I beat that?"

"I'm going to need some more time, if you don't mind. I don't want to accept your feelings when I'm not ready to"

Andrew let out a sigh of relief; at least he wasn't getting rejected.