Beneath City Lights

Chapter 5: Secrets and Shadows

𝑽𝒂𝒍𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏

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The small café on Hudson Avenue was as familiar as ever, a place that used to feel like home. The worn wooden tables, the low hum of conversation, the smell of freshly ground coffee—all of it brought memories rushing back. But tonight, the atmosphere carried an odd weight, as if something I'd long buried was surfacing again.

And there she was—Natalia Reyes.

She sat in the corner by the window, the sunlight still clinging to the sky behind her, casting an almost ethereal glow around her silhouette. She hadn't changed much. Her hair was pulled back into that same effortless bun she used to wear, her features just as sharp and captivating as I remembered. Yet, there was something different about her—perhaps the passage of time, or maybe the distance that had grown between us.

As I approached, her gaze lifted. Our eyes met for the first time in over a year, and for a moment, it felt like the world paused. She smiled, that same easy, enigmatic smile I had once fallen for. But it wasn't the smile that caught me off guard—it was her eyes. They held something deeper, a weight that hadn't been there before.

"Riri," she said softly, her voice carrying a warmth that seemed to brush away the years in a single breath. No one but Natalia had ever called me that. No one else had ever dared to.

Hearing it now, after all this time, made something inside me tighten. It was as if the years between us dissolved in an instant, but the weight of everything that had happened remained. I sat down, trying to shake off the sudden rush of emotions.

"It's been a while," I replied, my voice more guarded than I intended.

"Too long." Natalia leaned forward slightly, resting her arms on the table, her eyes searching mine. "How have you been?"

"Busy," I said, my gaze drifting out the window for a moment, trying to regain control. "You?"

She let out a soft sigh, her fingers tracing the edge of her cup. "Busy, too. But... I've been thinking about you lately. A lot."

I didn't know how to respond to that. We had ended things for a reason—her career, my work, and the sheer impossibility of keeping a relationship alive across oceans. And yet, hearing her say that, hearing her admit she'd been thinking about me... it stirred something I hadn't let myself feel in a long time.

"Why now?" I asked, my voice lower, curious but cautious.

Natalia glanced out the window, her expression softening. "I guess I realized... we never really got closure. We left so much unfinished."

Closure. That fragile, fleeting word. One that hinted at healing but also the unraveling of wounds.

"You made your choice, Natalia," I said quietly, not accusatory but simply stating a fact. "And I made mine."

"I know," she whispered, her eyes meeting mine again, full of things unsaid. "But I'm here now."

Her words hung in the air, like a promise that came too late. She was here now, but was that enough? Could we really untangle the mess that had been our relationship?

For a moment, we sat in silence, the quiet hum of the café filling the space between us. The clinking of cups, the murmur of conversations—everything seemed distant, as if the world outside our little bubble didn't exist.

"It wasn't just about my career, you know," Natalia said after a while, her voice barely above a whisper. "Leaving, I mean. It wasn't just about the job offer."