Stronger

Meet again

A bit of a boring chapter... I just love writing about those 2...

The book fair was starting on the Friday afternoon with short conference like presentations of most promising authors. Sanem had to do a couple of them and impressed her peers with her public speaking abilities, she showed ease, confidence and experience. She had invited Can to attend so he could see what she was working on all day. She tried to avoid his gaze while on stage, she was afraid to blush or lose her train of thought... Can was seating on the side, admiring her, and so proud. His interest in books kept him in the crowd longer than he had planned to stay and he waived at her when she left the room to go prepare for another presentation. That's when he saw him, across the room, clearly avoiding him. Yigit was trying to discreetly keep an eye on him and was making no attempt at showing himself. ''Good'' Can thought, ''he knows better.'' Yet Can couldn't help it and approached him. He nodded: ''Yigit.'' ''Can'' Yigit answered looking passed his shoulders.

C: ''I guess I don't need to tell you to stay the fuck away from her?''

Y: ''no need indeed.''

Can turned around and walked away. He left the room and went searching for Sanem. He found her on her laptop sitting on a large ottoman at the convention centre entrance, she was focused on whatever she was typing but he gently approached her and called her name.

C: ''Sanem, baby...'' she looked up a slight smile on her face. He sat next to her and kissed her hand: ''baby, I saw Yigit...'' She looked at the ground sighing. ''He knows he can't approach you, he won't do anything alright? So, you just forget he's here. I just came to tell you as I knew you'd see him.''

She put a hand on his cheek, kissed his lips and thanked him. ''Now off you go! Big successful weekend ahead!!'' he said. Sanem got up, walked backward for a few steps and turned around; he sat back, his arms stretched back to hold him and a smile on his face, he could spend an eternity looking at her.

And successful the weekend was, although she was exhausted, Sanem had a fantastic few days. She called Can from the taxi on her way home Sunday evening. He asked if she wanted to come to his place but she was too tired and wanted to see her family a bit. Monday and Tuesdays were going to be busy for both of them, they agreed to meet on Wednesday for a long lunch at their future house so they could inspect the work done.

Sanem arrived 20 minutes after he did, she saw the front door open and walked in calling his name. When she heard only silence, she followed the sound of steps upstairs and found him shuffling through what seemed like old pictures.

S: ''Can...'' he turned around. ''what are you doing?'' His eyes were lost ''are you ok?'' She approached him and took the picture he was holding in her hands. It showed 2 boys playing in the pool with an older man, their father probably.

C: ''I just found boxes of photos and memories.'' He looked down at the pile of pictures.

S: ''how do they make you feel?''

C: ''I'm not sure... All those are happy moments... it was a long time ago, it didn't last...'' he started packing them back in the box. Sanem stopped him and held his arm,

S: ''but they happened Can... those happy moments were real regardless of what happened afterwards. You can't ignore that.''

C: ''I guess...''

She went on: ''why would you let your parents 'mistakes ruin the few memories of you as a family Can? They have nothing to do with one another.''

Can looked up at her face and reached for her cheek, it was incredible how she managed to fix everything with a few words.