The décor of the small café Rachel sat in was, to put it kindly, dated. Not dated in the way that, with a minimal effort, it could have the trendy retro look that so many shops current shops were embracing. No, the owners clung to the dingy and dated décor not out of a sense of pride or fashion or what the new look is, but because a long string of indifferent owners had decided their idea of redecorating had stopped at changing the sign hanging on the door. Not that Rachel was there for the Décor. She wasn’t even there for the coffee, which in spite of the aged look of the machines behind the counter was actually quite decent. Actually, the place was warm, and smelled of good coffee and bakery products. On any other day the tiny booth she sat in, with it’s view of the rain splattered street, would have been a perfectly wonderful place to hole up and waste the day by drinking coffee and watching the few pedestrians brave enough to chance the rain that fell in fitful bursts.
Maybe, she thought, depending on how the day played out, she would come back. She could certainly see herself becoming fond of the place. But first, she had to get through today. Today was a day of reconciliation. A day for tallying up old hurts, and settling accounts. Of healing, or at least closure. A day when she finally got together enough courage to change the course of a life that had been dragging her down the last 6 months. A day for wiping the ledger clean. At this thought Rachel snorted, then coughed. The sip of coffee she had just inadvisable taken stinging the inside of her nose.
She wasn’t sure she was ready for this. But what she was sure of was that she’d had enough. She couldn’t keep living, not like this. Not avoiding all contact with those responsible for where she was. So she’d taken the first step. It had taken her two days to get up the nerve to make that call. In the end she had, savagely punching the numbers into the payphone before she could change her mind. Fortunately, Ray had picked up. If the call had gone to voicemail Rachel was sure she would have hung up. Lost her nerve. And ran. Again.
She still wanted to run, but forced herself to sit. To wait. Ray had said he would be right over. It was too late for second guessing herself. One way or another she was going to deal with this. There is something to be said for inertia, and now that the ball was rolling all she needed to do was hang tight and things had no choice but to change. And change was what she needed.
A chair scraped beside her, pulling her out of herself. Glancing in the window she took a sharp breath when she saw the reflection of who had sat down. One of the last people she wanted to deal with right now. And the very person she had arranged to meet.
“Hello Rachel”.
“Hello Ray”.
“That’s it, Just hello? No hug or ‘it’s good to see you’”?
“I’m fighting very hard right now to not to throw this coffee in your face, so don’t push it”!
“Ouch, that’s hostile. And yet you’re the one who wanted to see me. I’m getting mixed messages here”.
She turned and stared straight into his eyes, hostility clear in her voice. “You want a clear message. Fine, here it is. I hate you. I hate all of you. Get out of my life and stop trying to contact me.” She turned angrily back to the window.
“I don’t think you mean that”.
“I don’t think I could be any clearer”.
“I don’t think so. First off,” Ray ticked the points of on his fingers, “none of us have tried to contact you, not since your phone went dead. Secondly, you’re the one who contacted us. I get the feeling that us not being in your life is not what you want at all”.
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
More by this author