Desolate Love

Chapter 32: The Third Meeting

Vaughn POV

The restaurant was quiet, dimly lit, and it smelled of fresh bread and simmering pasta—comforting, almost. The kind of place people came to escape the world for a few hours. For a moment, as I stepped inside, I tried to convince myself that I wasn't walking into another nightmare. That somehow, this would be different. But the pit in my stomach told me otherwise.

Alec and Toby were already there when I arrived. They were sitting at a small corner table, their eyes trained on the entrance as if they'd been waiting for me to walk through that door the entire time. I couldn't help but feel their gaze on me, and my heart began to race, despite my best attempts to calm myself.

I hesitated for a moment, standing by the door. But then, reluctantly, I walked over to their table. Alec stood as I approached, his face a mix of hopeful expectation and anxiety. He pulled out the chair across from them for me, as if nothing had changed. As if this was just a casual dinner between old friends, which—let's face it—was far from the truth.

I dropped into the chair, my hands immediately finding their way into my lap, where they began to nervously fidget. I was trying to appear composed, but inside I was anything but.

"Hey, Vaughn," Alec said quietly, sitting back down. His voice wasn't as confident as usual, more subdued, and that was probably the only reason I didn't snap at him right away.

"Hey," I muttered, trying to sound indifferent. Trying to pretend this wasn't killing me.

Toby didn't say anything immediately, but he looked at me, his eyes soft with something close to regret. The kind of regret I wasn't sure I was ready to face. He shifted in his seat, as if unsure how to begin.

The waiter came over, his presence a small but welcome distraction. He took our drink orders and disappeared, and for a moment, there was only silence between us. The weight of everything that had been left unsaid hung in the air like thick smoke, suffocating and lingering.

I cleared my throat, breaking the silence first, even if I wasn't sure what I was going to say.

"So, this is the third meeting, huh?" I said, not looking directly at either of them. "How are we going to do this? Pretend like we're just three people sitting at a table, having a normal dinner?"

Toby opened his mouth to respond, but Alec beat him to it.

"We don't want to pretend like nothing happened, Vaughn," Alec said, his voice a little tight. "We want to... work through this, if you'll let us. We know we can't undo what we've done, but we want to try to make things better. Make up for it."

I exhaled sharply. I wasn't sure what to do with that. What was there to say to that? They wanted to make up for everything, but what did that even look like? What did making up for all the hurt they'd caused even mean?

"I don't think it works that way," I said softly, my eyes finally meeting Alec's. He looked... sad. Not just sad, but genuinely remorseful. I hated that it made me feel so conflicted. "You can't just walk back into my life and pretend you can fix everything with a few words. You can't fix years of silence and abandonment with an apology."

Toby's eyes dropped to the table, and for once, he didn't try to argue with me. He just let my words sit there, thick and heavy between us. I could feel the heat rising in my chest, a dull ache that I couldn't quite shake.

"We don't expect you to forgive us," Toby finally said, his voice quieter than usual, almost hesitant. "We don't expect anything from you, Vaughn. We just... we're trying to show you that we care. That we've always cared. Even if it doesn't look like that to you now."

I blinked at him, surprised by his sudden admission. He wasn't trying to sugarcoat things, wasn't spinning some excuse for his actions. He was just... admitting the truth. And I wasn't sure how I felt about that.

"Then what exactly are you trying to do here?" I asked, a little more bluntly than I'd intended. "You show up, you apologize, and now you want me to what? Forget? Pretend like everything's fine? Like you didn't both turn your backs on me when I needed you most?"

Alec leaned forward slightly, his elbows on the table, his hands clenched into fists. He didn't flinch at my words, though. That was a surprise.

"We're not asking you to forget, Vaughn," he said slowly, his eyes steady on mine. "We're just asking for the chance to try. To make things right. One step at a time."

I swallowed thickly, shaking my head. This was harder than I'd anticipated. They both had that look on their faces—the one that said they knew they were asking for something huge, something I wasn't ready to give. And yet, they kept pushing.

It wasn't just the apology that was difficult. It was the fact that they were asking for a part of me that I hadn't shared with anyone in years. The hope that, maybe, we could go back to something more than just being strangers in a room. They wanted to be in my life again, in some capacity, and I wasn't sure if I could let them.

"You don't get to just barge into my life again after everything," I said, though my voice didn't have the edge I wanted it to. "You don't get to ask for forgiveness and expect everything to magically fix itself."

"We know," Toby murmured, his eyes fixed on his hands. "We're not asking for magic. We're just asking for a chance. A real one."

I clenched my jaw, feeling the weight of the moment bear down on me. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to say. I wasn't sure what they wanted from me, but I knew one thing: this wasn't going to be easy.

The waiter arrived with our drinks, interrupting the conversation just long enough to give me a break from the suffocating tension that was still hanging in the air. I took a sip of my water, trying to buy myself a little more time to process everything that was being thrown my way.

As the waiter left, I shifted my gaze back to Alec and Toby. They were both watching me, waiting for some kind of response. The silence stretched on, thick and uncomfortable.

"What happens if I say I'm not ready?" I asked, looking between them. "What happens if I can't forgive you right now?"

Neither of them flinched, neither of them looked away. Alec's expression softened, and I could see the battle he was fighting in his eyes—just as I was. Toby exhaled deeply, and his fingers tightened on the edge of his glass.

"Then we'll wait," Alec said, his voice steady. "We'll wait for as long as it takes."

I stared at them, their words sinking into my mind. I wasn't sure what to think, what to feel. But for the first time in a long time, I allowed myself to wonder what it might feel like to let them in again. To take that chance. Even if I wasn't ready to forgive them, maybe I could give them the space they needed. Maybe, just maybe, that would be enough.

The conversation shifted after that, lighter topics filling the silence between us. But I couldn't stop thinking about what we had just said, what we had just started. The third meeting was over, but the real work had only just begun.

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A/N: How does everyone want to see this story go? Is he forgiving him too fast or is it a good pace? I feel like him not forgiving is becoming very repetitive and hard to read but it's also more realistic so i'm lost! Any feedback is appreciated :)