The Way Back | ✓

3.3

note: I'm totally sorry I forgot to update last weekend. There's so much on my plate right now and I was distracted by Imperial Compass, my other wip. But I'm here to make it up with double updates. Enjoy!

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The only thing London was looking forward to was dinner with Andrew Cai that night. Her day had been long, and tiring and she could not wait to get off work and have dinner with some lovely company. She hadn't been on a date in a while and the fact that she was going to go on a date with a man who only finalised his divorced the day before, a man who was fresh out a marriage, unnerved her slightly.

It made her nervous. She barely ever got asked out, mostly because she was closed off if she ever took a night off with her friends. That or either she turned her offers down. Why go on a date when the person couldn't even excite you at the start? First impressions go a long way for London, which was why she was hesitant to go out with Andrew tonight.

Her first impression of him was not all that picture perfect. He was married, she hadn't even known and had agreed to coffee, in which she'd found his charming arse was married. That was a no-go zone for London. But when kismet seemed to work in their favour, when the stars in the sky destined them to meet accidentally again and again she could not deny that perhaps fate had a hand in this — that fate had gotten one thing right for once.

She hadn't any other plans tonight. She wished to see her sister, to call a ceasefire to their current squabble but Gwen refused to pick up her calls and London was done being the only one who fought to keep their sisterhood alive and real. Pretending never worked in your favour — never for long anyway.

Her phone pinged with a message. Dusting the flour off her hands, she excused herself. She let the cold water run from the tap as she massaged the dry flour from her fingers. Once her hands were clean, she pulled her hair-net off before fishing out her phone from the front pocket of her white chef's apron.

Maybe thinking too hard and long did make things happen because there, sitting front and centre in her notifications, was a message from her sister. She wasted not a second in swiping open her phone and viewing the message.

Gwenie: can we talk?

Her eyebrows furrowed, something she did out habit when she was confused. Her fingers worked quick against the touch keyboard.

London: At work. Should I call? I can.

London had only taken a deep breath when Gwen fired her next text.

Gwenie: no. meet me tonight

No question mark. No full stop. That was enough to convince her that something was wrong, that her sister needed her.

London: Ok, I'll bring leftovers from work.

Gwenie: i'll send inesh to get the wine and tissues. thanks london i'm sorry

She knew instantly that this was not about Inesh at all, considering she was sending him out for a quick errand, so her first conclusion about Gwen being hurt some way by Inesh, who was an actual sweetheart, was cancelled. Her mind reeled with what upset her older sister. Rereading the last message made it easier to figure it out. Gwen needed to talk to her because this was something she could talk to no one else about. Who better to talk to about the death of their mother other than her sister, who understood the pain better than anyone else. Their father was out of the equation. He was a man who grieved silently and alone, with an ice whiskey and weeks away from his family.

Whatever it was that Gwen was dealing with, London would be there for her. London had taken the greatest hit with their mother's death. They'd all been affected by her death but it was London's life that had taken a complete one-eighty, her life turning upside down. She couldn't deal with her grief and finals. She had quite a number of breakdowns. She dropped out of uni. She got a part-time job and lived with her sister. She then moved out and moved in with a friend because her sister was constantly on her case about being so fucking depressed. Gwen didn't understand. London was not depressed. Or she was. She didn't know. Life was just hard and the thought of ending it all had crossed her mind — not often but a few times and everytime London would feel guilty. Guilty because she knew she had people who cared about her. Her father and her sister were in their own bubble, just like they had been when her mother died, so she stayed strong. For them, for herself.

Four years later and she was still drowning.

She missed her mother. So when Sasha, one of the waitresses, came around to ask London if she was all right, London shook her head, the tears brimming in her eyes once more. Gwen needed her and she was going to be there for her sister. But where was Gwen when she needed her?