YOUR FIRST LOVE IS YOUR FUTURE

PART 22 - A Familiar Stranger

TORONTO, CANADA

"Say thank you to your Ninong Jun-Jun, Mazy."

Alexine was talking to Jun over a video call with her four-year-old daughter. She had been living in Canada for six years and was married to her co-worker, who was also a nurse.

Life had changed so much.

The girl who once dreamed of building a future with Rainier was now a mother, a wife, and a woman who had built a life far away from Serendipity.

She had moved on.

Or at least, she had learned how to live as if she had.

From a distance, she could see a familiar posture.

A man in his late thirties, about her age, wearing a black winter jacket and glasses, with a slightly trimmed beard around his face, waiting for his coffee to be served at the cashier.

He was walking in her direction.

Alexine froze.

Her heart suddenly knew before her mind could accept it.

'Rain... Rainier... It's him...'

She could barely speak.

Six years had passed.

Six years of distance, silence, growing up, and living lives that no longer seemed connected.

And yet, one look was enough to bring everything back.

"Mommy! Let's go to the cashier. I want a Timmies Minis, please."

Her daughter was pulling her hand toward the cashier's direction.

Alexine barely had time to react before they bumped into the man she thought looked like Rainier.

And it was indeed him.

For a moment, everything around them seemed to disappear.

Rainier couldn't believe who he had just seen.

It was Alexine.

The woman he had spent years trying not to think about.

The woman he had searched for in silence.

He had only taken a short trip to Canada to visit his family.

Meeting Alexine wasn't planned.

But perhaps some people could disappear from your life without ever really leaving your heart.

"You know him, Mommy?"

'Mommy?'

It was a painful truth for Rainier.

The girl he once loved was now someone's wife.

A mother.

A woman with a life he no longer belonged to.

"Rainier, it must be you. I can't be mistaken."

"Yes. This is me, Alexine."

His voice was calm, but inside, everything was shaking.

"Mommy, hurry and buy me the Timmies Minis."

Her daughter impatiently pointed to the display while making her request to the cashier.

"One moment, alright, alright. Here."

Preoccupied by the moment, Alexine still managed to approach him.

"Wow, you've got a kid now. She's pretty like her mother." he said.