Aeipathy ➳ Normani ✓

twenty-five

C H A P T E R  T W E N T Y - F I V E
 

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Normani could feel the chill of the air around her settle in her uncovered fingertips as she trudged through the leaf-covered pavement. Her suitcase rattled behind her as she pulled it along. She came to a stop in front of the familiar entrance of the sub shop she and Anika had frequented for years now and entered.

She found Anika at their usual table with two sandwiches in front of her. Her best friend saw her as soon as she approached the table and she stood to greet her.

"Hey," Anika said and wrapped her arms around her. Their hug was long and spoke of all the time they'd spent apart and how much they'd missed each other. Anika kissed her cheek, "I've missed you."

"Likewise," Normani replied with a tired smile.

"Let me help you with your bag," she said and grabbed the handle. She folded the handle in and tucked the suitcase under the table while Normani sat down.

"Thanks for ordering for me," she said.

"I would've gotten you a coffee too but I didn't want you to get it cold."

"I think I'll forgo coffee for today anyway," Normani replied.

She watched Anika sit down. A waitress came and took Normani's drink order of fresh orange juice and returned with it five minutes later. Anika let a few minutes pass in silence as Normani took the first taste of her food.

"How have you been holding up?" Anika asked, cupping her mug with both hands and training her dark eyes onto her best friend. Normani sighed and her eyes darted the window outside, then down to her food and back up to her best friend again.

Anika could see the torment in her eyes, the pure exhaustion. She saw also how blood shot the area surrounding her pupils were and how swollen her tear ducts were.

Normani had probably cried herself to sleep the previous night and on her fight back from Houston that morning too.

"What can I say?" Normani replied and sighed. It seemed to come from the deepest depths of her soul.

"I think spending the past five days with Mama really helped. Mothers are really wise, they know how to deal with these things. We don't give them enough credit."

"Well, they've seen and gone through all of this before, we forget we aren't the first people to have our hearts broken. What does Mama Drea think about all of this?" Anika asked gently.

"She's real sorry I had to go through all of that but she thinks that our relationship isn't entirely doomed. Keith and I could still work it out, but only if its something I really want. She liked him a lot, she and Dad."

"What do you want, Mani?"

Normani's eyes filled with tears and she shook her head and with a broken voice she said, "I miss him so much, Nika you don't understand. In Nigeria I was so mad at him, I wanted nothing to do with him, it was easy to walk away then yet now – now I never imagined I'd ever want someone so terribly."

Anika reached for her hand and clasped it tight.

"I can imagine, I'm so sorry. Has he tried to reach out to you?"

Normani nodded and reached for a napkin to dab at the corners of her eyes.

"Yeah, during the first few days but I wouldn't respond to his texts. But I do this horrible thing where I stalk his Facebook at night when I'm supposed to be sleeping and I saw that he landed in New York two days ago."