Inches Apart

n e i g h b o r s # 7

"Emily, are you ready to go?" Olivia asked as she sat on Emily's couch impatiently.

It was time for Emily to "randomly" run into Daniel at Joe's Pizza. Olivia had no trouble convincing Emily to go eat pizza, but she was worried what would happen when Emily saw Daniel. She hoped the meeting would go well, but she knew Emily was stubborn. She was going to put up a fight.

"Ready."

Emily walked into the room wearing jeans and a t-shirt. Olivia shook her head and pushed Emily back into her room, telling her to put on a nicer shirt. Emily rolled her eyes but did as her friend told her. She stared at her clothes for a few minutes before selecting an off the shoulder white blouse with a ruffle on the top. She quickly pulled her t-shirt off and put on the blouse.

Emily rejoined her friend in her living room and grabbed a black sweater before heading out the door. As they walked to Joe's Pizza and talked about Olivia and her husband, Emily noticed her friend starting to avoid contact with Emily. She seemed nervous.

"Are you alright? You seem nervous about something."

"Just fine. Oh look, here we are," her friend replied quickly, confirming Emily's suspicions.

Emily decided not to press the matter further and let her friend go inside first. Emily walked in behind her and got in line. They ordered their pizza and then sat down on the small cute outside patio to wait for the food. Emily watched her friend look around as though she was expecting someone, making Emily even more suspicious.

"Emily, would you mind getting me some more water?" her friend soon asked as she paused in her odd survey of the patio.

"Sure."

Emily quickly got up and hurried toward the door to go back inside. She didn't notice someone else coming out of the door with a plate of pizza in his hand, so she walked right into him. It seemed like it was all in slow mode as she ran into him, and his pizza flew in the air before landing on her white blouse and then on the ground.

"I am so sorry. I tried getting out of your way. Please forgive me."

Emily looked down at her now pizza covered white blouse with her mouth opened wide and then back up to see who she had run into. All intentions of telling the person it was alright went out the window when she saw her neighbor standing in front of her with an empty plate in his hand. She shook her head at him with a sigh and walked back to her table. She didn't want to speak to him.

"Emily, please wait."

Emily ignored the shocked look on her friend's face as she got to their table and pulled her black sweater on. When she had gotten it on, she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned and sighed when she saw Daniel. She was going to sit down and ignore him when her friend stood up and forced Emily to face Daniel.

"What are you doing?"

"He deserves to be heard. I'm not giving you an option, Emily."

"You set this up? How could you do that? You know how I feel about this whole thing. Why would you do this?"

"Because she knew I needed to talk to you and that this was the only way you would see me. I was just as shocked as you when I found out you were the one who wrote the blog. You're not the only one in this situation."

Emily shook her head and crossed her arms over her chest. She didn't want to have to listen to him spout off a bunch of lies, but she knew her friend was serious about forcing her to stay. It would be useless to try to leave.

"I don't want to hear it, Daniel. You've been nothing but a jerk since I moved in. You think I'm useless, and I don't appreciate it. You have nothing to offer me after everything. I can't have you in my life because I'm tired of doing all of this to try to prove something. It's gotten exhausting, so I'm done trying to prove myself."

Daniel heard the pain she felt as she spoke. He had caused that pain, and he was so sorry. He had been horrible to her, and it was time for him to own up to that and ask for her forgiveness.

"I understand you're angry at me. What I told you when you moved in was horrible. I'm sorry for saying you were useless. I was wrong. Emily, you need to believe me. I don't say things like that, so I don't know where that came from. I don't lie, Emily, so I'm being genuine in this. I want to make things right. even if you won't ever talk to me again. If I had realized what I had done sooner, this apology would've come sooner. I am so, so sorry."

Emily looked down at the ground. He was being genuine. She knew how to read people, and she knew he wasn't lying. He really was sorry. She didn't want to just forgive him, but she knew that was something she should've done a lot sooner. She had taken what he said and let it turn into something so much bigger than it should've been. She shouldn't have held the grudge.

Here was the long awaited apology she wanted, and she didn't want to take it because she knew she should've already forgiven him. She hadn't been forgiving, and she had allowed it to bring bitterness into her life. She was the one who needed to be sorry at this point, so she shook her head at him.

"What you said hurt a lot, but I know I shouldn't have held onto it for so long. I let it get in the way of how I treated you and how I conducted myself. I wish I had forgiven you before now, but I do forgive you. And now, I hope you will forgive me for treating you badly as well. I'm sorry for not being forgiving and for holding this against you for so long. I don't know how this will all play out, but I want the same thing as you-- to make it right."

Daniel smiled, and Emily returned his smile. For the first time ever, they finally seemed to understand each other. Emily felt lighter than she had felt in a long time because bitterness was no longer keeping her from seeing her neighbor as the good man he was. Daniel no longer felt guilty, and he finally saw his neighbor the way she really was-- smart, strong, and beautiful.

They were both finally free from the past.

Maybe they didn't match, but they went together, and it all started with them being only inches apart.