After the End

Chapter 1 - Adultnapped

The present day.

"It's been over a month now," she said quietly, her pale hands wrapped around a mug of coffee that had gone cold. "Nothing has been the same since he left."

"What are you going to do now that he's gone?"

"Try and breathe, I guess," she smiled, amusement clearly missing from her response.

"It will be ok."

"But what's going to happen to Jack?"

Allegra looked at her sister in silence for a moment, studying her expression and drawing an appropriate response from what she saw. She took a deep breath, exhaling through her nostrils, and smiled reassuringly as she caught Naomi's line of sight.

"He'll continue to go to school," she began, "and to learn and grow with his friends. And then at the end of each day, he'll come home to his loving mother and beautiful home, just as he always has."

Naomi nodded silently, understanding that Allegra probably knew Jack had only a few friends at school, and hoped that that was enough to support him at this time.

"I know Wayne has never really been..." Naomi trailed off, searching for the most fitting word to describe his part in Jack's life. "Around," she continued, "but... I don't know what to tell Jack."

Allegra watched Naomi's eyes stare intensely into her cold mug of coffee as she drowned in her thoughts, and allowed silence to fill the space between them, hoping that it would encourage her sister to open up.

"I'm sorry but your daddy didn't love us enough, so he's gone to live with his Sunday hoe," Naomi muttered.

"Well, maybe don't say that," Allegra laughed softly.

"You're right," Naomi sighed, leaning back in her chair. "It was me he didn't love enough."

"Um, that's not what I –"

"What am I going to do, Allie?" Naomi asked, looking around the Scandinavian Kitchen café.

As much as they adored The Little One Coffee Shop and Ginger & White, they had decided to visit a new café; an attempt to change their habit.

Naomi looked at all of the Nordic groceries that had been packed into the tiny room and wondered how they had managed to fit a café in there too.

Brave, she thought.

"Pursue your passions," Allegra suggested, but it was as if Naomi had lost interest and wasn't listening.

"I can't do this."

"Naomi," Allegra began, leaning forwards and resting her hands on top of her sister's, which were still wrapped around the coffee mug. "You don't need a man. You're the strongest woman I know. You make women that aren't single want to be single."

"Have you heard from Tom?" Naomi asked suddenly.

It felt like a kick to the stomach. What was Naomi suggesting? That Allegra was practically... Single?

Naomi closed her eyes and sighed, realizing what she had just said, and squeezed her younger sister's hands.

"Allie, that's not what I meant."

"No, I haven't heard from him," Allegra replied quietly, pulling her hands back and staring into her lap.

"I'm sorry."

She picked at a bit of thread that was coming loose from the hem of her navy dress, keeping her eyes on her fingers as they played with the cotton.