Sweet afternoons

Chapter sixteen

"No, no, no definitely not, this guy could be a murderer for all I know!"

Nate's loud voice shook the bakery walls, making half of the customers jump in surprise. He quickly realised his rudeness and apologised before turning back to glare at me. I had explained to him about my plans to meet with Ethan later that night, he was less than pleased, to say the least.

"I have to Nate, I'm fed up with feeling so stuck in the past, I want to move on from everything that I used to be and finally live in the here and now," my eyes pleaded with his to understand, I finally had a chance to get rid of some of the baggage I had been carrying for so long. My whole life, I'd been held back by my former self, fighting with her about who I was and who I needed to be. This would the final fight, a chance to show her, and everyone, that my life was in my hands now.

The firmness of Nate's facial features soon vanished and was replaced with pity and sympathy. His lips began to form an apology but I put my hand over his mouth before he could say a word. "I don't need your apologies, I just need you to understand," there was a short moment of silence between us, the hustle and bustle of the bakery filling the empty air around us and that allowed Nate time to think.

It wasn't long before he spoke again, "What about Andres?" I raised my eyebrows at him, questioning his words. He soon recognized my confusion and continued to speak, "Are you going to tell him and expect him to understand?" His words seemed to hit me hard, harsher than they were likely intended to be.

Andres and I had not spoken in a few days and I was growing impatient, not hearing his voice, and still knowing he was upset with me was driving me insane. In retrospect I think telling him would've been smart, even if he was angry at me. Even if I was the last person he wanted to see at that moment in time.

Of course, I'd never been one for intelligent, well thought out decisions and preferred to be impulsive. My impulsive behaviour had served me well in the past, helping me to escape my hell hole life in England and start fresh in America. It was only natural I stuck by it.

So I didn't tell Andres, instead, I chose to keep the ordeal quiet and meet Ethan with the expectations of never speaking about our conversations again. It was around eight pm when I arrived at a small bar, half an hour from my house. It was old fashioned with wooden doors and mahogany tables, the quiet jazz music playing in the background set a sombre tone that subtly seemed to sum up the evening.

I waited by the bar for a few minutes before I felt a tap on my shoulder. Turning swiftly I found a tall, slender, blonde man stood half a meter away from me. His smile showed off pristine, crystal white teeth all perfectly neat with a blinding gleam that was overbearing, to say the least.

The protruding mint smell that escaped his mouth as he spoke burned my nose in the most unpleasant way. It was only softened by the harshly bitter smell emanating from his torso, what I could only assume was aftershave that had been fermented for much longer than necessary.

The man I had not seen in years who stood in front of me seemed both overly familiar and a complete stranger. All the things I thought were so perfect about him when we were younger seemed so incredibly unappealing now. He was an alien wearing the skin of a man I once knew. The skin just didn't fit quite right and the odd shapes underneath made the body so unrecognisable.

"Lena, it's great to see you again," his voice was gravelly, reminding me of myself when I had a terrible cold. It didn't seem to match his exterior very well and left me confused as to why I ever enjoyed listening to his voice.

"It's nice to see you too, Ethan," I stuck my hand out politely for a handshake but was surprised when he grasped my hand tightly and pulled me to his chest. His hug was suffocating and I didn't appreciate the proximity we were in at all. Nevertheless, I hugged him back so as not to seem too rude.