A Year Without You

13 ~ Her

Her

Day 0 – When it ends

The alarm was beeping over the bedside table like clockwork. Groaning, I pushed the snooze button and rolled towards my right. Collin was sleeping soundly unbothered by the alarm. I nudged him by my elbow, waking him up. It took a few tries until I'm finally able to wake him up completely.

When I saw him moved, I cued it as time to get up and head towards the shower. After I was done, I quickly changed into fresh clothes for the day and headed towards the kitchen. For breakfast, I decided to make a cheese omelet and buttered toast. Once the apartment started to smell of food, Collin joined me by the dining table already freshen up and ready to go.

There were hardly any words exchanged between us. The eerie silence in the room was partly comfortable and half of it wasn't. For the pass few days, we'd been having the same repeated argument when we opened our mouth. Yet every night, we lay in the same bed without making any conclusion. Today was the same. Still silence.

After I parked the car by our workplace, he broke the ice – as he usually does. It was mostly to say his premeditated speech. But this time it was different.

"I'll meet your outside the bistro after I've closed the shop. But I won't be having lunch with you today. The guys and I have plans."

I arched my eyebrow in wonder. "What's the occasion?" I inquired. They'll only meet when it's a serious sport occasion, someone birthday, or the occasional weekend bonding time they have, which I'm mostly part of. Yet today was neither and it was a weekday.

"They just wanted to meet. That's all," he replied vaguely. He looked like he wasn't in the mood to explain further.

"Is there a game I should be aware of? I don't think anything is in season today," I muttered, thinking of a reason since he wasn't willing to share.

With a heavy sigh, he got out of the door. "We just want to meet up that's all, Emilia. Don't stress it out."

He didn't wait for my reply and crossed the street, walking towards the coffee shop he owned, which was right across the bistro where I worked and my mother owned. I pursed my lips in defeat. Usually, when we weren't in bad terms, he'd walked me to the door and gave me a quick farewell kiss. But after last night, and the lack of verbal communication this morning, I knew it was unlikely to have at least one of those two.

In a heavy heart, I got of the car as well and made my way to work. Before entering the bistro, I peered briefly at the coffee shop and saw him looking out the door in my direction. Even though it was brief, I saw him looked in my direction. As we both turned our back on each other, my heart continued to sunk deeper into an abyss.

"You looked tired. Still haven't accomplished anything with Collin?" Penny asked the second I stepped in the kitchen. She was a fan of interrogations first before greeting.

"We talked...at least," I muttered in reply.

"But still nothing?"

"We're just talking in circles, Penny. I don't know what to do anymore. He couldn't see. He wouldn't understand."

"Don't give up on him, Emi. I see you are slipping away already," she pointed firmly. "Continue on talking it with him. Relationship is about communication. Not everyday is about rainbows and happy tunes. But it will get better."

I smiled at her uncharacteristic advice. "Thank you, Penny. I'll keep that in mind when I'll try again tonight."

"Great. That's the spirit!"