Time Stands Still

Chapter 12

The next couple of days, Nathan was on my mind a lot. Even though I desperately tried to push every single thought as far back as possible, almost anything reminded me of him now. Apparently I had never really dealt with all of the emotions of leaving Nathan behind.

It turned out that I was not the only one who had Nathan on their minds.

Simona texted me to go out for drinks with her one day. I immediately accepted the offer in the hopes that I could distract myself. I assumed that it was what Simona had in mind.

I was wrong.

When I arrived at the bar that one particular evening, Simona was there already. She was sitting next to Aria. I faltered in my steps for a moment. Nothing good could come out of this meeting, but I decided to be brave in the end.

Also Simona had already waved happily to me. Unfortunately she had ordered a drink for me, so there was no possibility of me trying to delay the inevitable for any longer.

"So what's going on exactly?" I asked after a brief greeting.

Simona smiled at me, while Aria just glanced around the bar nervously. "Well, I contacted Aria, considering she is your friend now." I glanced at Aria who was still looking away from me.

"And I explained why you don't like being set up."

My throat tightened as I glanced at Aria with wide eyes.

"I'm sorry," Aria apologized. The apology certainly did not calm me down. "I should have asked why you didn't like being set up. I completely understand that it is difficult to move on after a break-up like yours. It's always unfortunate when you have to leave someone because you both have to move to two different places."

The tight grip on my throat loosened and suddenly I could breathe normally again. I vaguely registered the smirk on Simona's face. "Yeah, it is really difficult."

"So you're not mad at me anymore?" Aria asked as she avoided eye contact.

I gave her a smile. "Sure."

The smirk on Simona's face got bigger. "Well, that's good. We can all be friends now." My smile slightly faltered as I noticed the look on Simona's face. She had something in my mind that I was definitely going to disagree with.

I stared at Simona. "What are you planning?"

Simona smiled. "Well, since you so kindly asked, I'll tell you. Aria and I talked and we both agree that you need to move on."

I gaped at her. My mouth was struggling to form words in rebuttal.

Simona took advantage of my speechlessness. "I know that you don't want to move on, but he moved on. I think that you're allowed to move on too. Even if there had been a chance that you could have gotten together. He moved on. You are allowed to move on too." Simona started at me intently when she uttered those last words.

"That's how it works. If he moved on, then you're definitely allowed to move on," Aria confirmed with her always serious face.

I opened my mouth again to form a rebuttal but I closed it quickly. There was some truth to those words, but I just couldn't. It didn't seem fair.

"And that's why we think that you should give Sebastian Connaway another chance," Simona told me as she pointed to a corner of the room where Sebastian Connaway was indeed standing. He was talking to some friends.

I shook my head.

Simona grabbed my arm. "Please, just try again for me. Sebastian seems like the type of guy that you would like. Give it one more try. It's not right for you to have to wait before you can move on. And if it doesn't work out, I'll leave you alone."