What if second chances come a second time?
Long ago, Hannah and Jonah called it quits. Long ago, Hannah stopped trying to make things work, and Jonah let her go. Long ago, Jonah mailed back all of Hannah's stuff from his apartment, and Hannah blocke...
Anxiously waiting for Dr. Sharma, my gynecologist-oncologist, to return after getting my blood drawn, I send my best friend a text.
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My phone immediately rings, and I laugh as I answer it. "Yes?"
"What do you mean you saw Jonah in Manhattan? Jonah Gibbs?" Gina immediately launches straight into interrogation-mode, no greetings necessary. "How?"
"Well, I mean I just saw him at a coffee shop across from Freddie's office building," I say in a nonchalant tone. "We talked a bit."
"Why are you sounding so chill about this? What the fuck is going on?" Honestly, she sounds distressed. "Can you start at the beginning? Why are you even in New York?"
Laughing a little, I put her out of her misery by telling her why I'm in New York and that I paid Freddie a visit at his office. "Then I went to get coffee from a place across the street. Then I saw Jonah."
She's quiet for a while, I almost think the call's disconnected. "Honestly, Hannah, I swear this is the exact kinda shit that only happens to you."
"I know! It's so fucking crazy. I mean, what are the chances? Right across the street from my husband's office? What?"
"Wait. This is really giving me déjà vu. I swear we've had this exact conversation before."
"Oh, God. Don't remind me." Gina's not wrong. I'm pretty sure we had the same kind of conversation on the phone back when Jonah suddenly showed up at my campus with his little sister.
"That was five years ago. Five," she muses in disbelief. "If I had a penny for every time you accidentally run into Jonah Flynn Gibbs years after you guys stopped talking, I'd have two pennies—which isn't a lot, but it's still weird that it's happened twice."
"Tell me about it." I lean back into the chair, shaking my head even though she can't see it. "I never really thought about what I'd do if I ever saw him again, and, well, I literally didn't know what to do when it actually happened."
"So, what happened? You guys talked? Did he apologize for what he did? Did you yell at him? Throw coffee in his face? Like when he dumped soda all over your head and stained your hair red in high school after you pissed him off that one time."
"Gina, no." I roll my eyes. "'That one time'. Funny you should say that, considering we literally never would've started talking if I hadn't 'pissed him off that one time'."
She cackles. "I remember trying to cover up my face to avoid the secondhand embarassment when you walked into him on purpose with that soda can in your hand. I did not expect you to get showered with said soda in retaliation, however."
"You were of great help, by the way. I could hear you laughing all the way across the room. Thanks for that."
"Ohhh, man. That was terrible. I could see the glare on his face. It was deadly. The whole room was quiet. I still don't know how you kept your face straight, 'cause I literally would've died on the spot if Jonah Gibbs ever looked at me like that," Gina laughs. "What a strange beginning of a love story for the ages."
