The Restaurant (inspired by right where you left me, by taylor swift)

Chapter three

Winter had finally come.
nothing had changed.
The new year was approaching and all she could think about was the possibilities that it could bring.

Maybe it was finally going to happen.
He was going to come and see her, and then they would leave together.
leaving the restaurant behind forever.
"This visit is going to be different." she assured herself.
If only she could move her lips to say those words out loud.

Soon enough it was time, and the bell at the door chimed.
He sat in front of her... and she could move once again. She stretched her arms and cracked her knuckles, then her neck.
Something about just existing in his presence was freeing.

"What are you planning on doing in the new year?' She asked him.
"I think it's time for me to turn over a new leaf" he began, "I haven't really been a good friend to you this year"
"What does that mean for you?'
"Actually coming to visit you when I say I will, I know I haven't really been the best with that"
"What about me finally being able to leave this seat, what if one day I can leave with you?"
"You can get up and leave that seat any time you want, you just choose not to."
"You know it's not that easy... do you even care?" "Yes"
"Then why won't you show it?"

A moment of silence washed over them.
All of a sudden, a shiny new face came through the door.
And the first person he looked at was her.
For the first time in a really long time she felt some of that freedom come back to her.
She truly felt as though she might just have free will.

Already, she looked up to him.
She longed to be free, just like him.
Never weighed down by his past or stuck in the same spot.
He was older, and he seemed wiser. She had never met anyone who had independence like him before.

He was a chef, who had a car and didn't even live with his parents anymore.
To her, he was a glowing example of the type of life she wanted to make for herself.

They sat there all night talking to each other.
Every word they spoke was another muscle she could finally move again.
She felt a magical sensation take over her and she became overcome with joy.

Her ex, the reason she was even in the restaurant in the first place, sat and watched the entire thing.
He looked as though he would soon be seething. "Do you think you're going to go with him?" he furrowed his brow.
"I don't know"
she tried her best to hide her smile, so as not to make him feel worse.
He said nothing.

"Why do you seem so mad at me?"
tears began to well up in her eyes
"I thought you would be happy for me. you didn't want me"
"Do you think this is easy for me?"
"No of course not.. But I've been trying my best to do everything I can to include you, because I know how horrible it can feel to not be included, but you just keep acting like I'm doing something wrong. Did you even care about the fact that you made me feel that way?"
"Weirdly enough, no"

She felt as though a knife had just plunged through her heart, and she wondered if he had ever really loved her.

Just as that thought crossed her mind, a welcoming hand reached out to her to help her up.