love me like you mean it // chaelisa

twenty-nine

Chaeyoung took a deep breath before she opened the door to the restaurant. This was against her better judgment but she wanted to know what it was that Niki had to say to her.

Once she told the hostess the name the reservation was under she was led through the restaurant until she saw Niki sitting alone with a glass of wine, looking over the menu. She also noticed the steak knives that were already on the table. If it comes down to it. She thought to herself before shaking her head.

"Hi." Chaeyoung let out as she sat down across from Niki.

"Chaeyoung, hi." The other woman grinned and Chaeyoung had to admit in a new light Niki was quite attractive. "Thank you so much for meeting with me."

Chaeyoung nodded. "Sure, I figured if you're calling me it had to be important."

"My apologies again for it being so out of the blue. Your mother gave me your number about a month ago but it took me a little bit of time to find the courage to use it." This wasn't news to Chaeyoung. Niki had told her all of this on the phone but Chaeyoung decided against making a snarky comment because it was clear that Niki was nervous. Something she had never seen before.

"Manhattan please," Chaeyoung told the waiter with a smile. "It's really no problem." Chaeyoung smiled and she could see Niki relax a little.

"I just really wanted to apologize to you. Face to face. You had and have every right to not like me and I understand that now. For so long I never wanted to see it, I never wanted to see what was right in front of me. It wasn't until you came back to Laguna that it hit me."

"Look Niki if this is about Lisa, she and I are not together. I mean we're friends but that's it."

"No, I mean it is about Lisa but not because I want to get back together with her." Chaeyoung's eyes narrowed a bit as she tried to process what Niki was really trying to tell her.

"Back in law school I had a huge crush on her, I mean who wouldn't and I never realized that I was causing doubt in her mind about you and her. I really was trying to be her friend but I will admit when she told me you two broke up I went about it all wrong. Instead of being her friend and trying to talk her out of the worst decision of her life, I went along with it in hopes that maybe she would finally see me." She shook her head as she downed half the wine in her glass. "She used to talk about you, all the time. How amazing you were and how you were the best thing to ever happen to her and that she'd go to the end of the earth for you if that's what it took. I think she loved you so much that it scared the hell out of her. The thought of losing you made her a little crazy. She's one of the least insecure people I have ever met unless it comes to you. When you came back, I saw the way she looked at you. She didn't even mean to and she certainly didn't notice that she was doing it. I'm still not entirely sure that she'd notice."

Chaeyoung shook her head as she drank most of her own drink. "But you're the one that broke it off, not her. She loved you Niki and she wouldn't have broken off your engagement, especially not because of me."

"I disagree. You don't see how she looks at you. The past four years were good, don't get me wrong but I never wanted to admit to myself that she wasn't the same girlfriend to me that she was to you. I'm not trying to compare us, at all but she used to fly across the country to see you, there were days she wouldn't drive the extra half hour to see me. Is it a big deal, no. However, it is very telling. She wouldn't have gone through with our wedding. She didn't even mean to propose, I found the ring and it sort of spiraled. I think it was our way of not wanting to face the inevitable. We just weren't meant to be."

"So what are you saying?"

Niki smiled. "I'm saying you two, you're meant to be. I was watching family videos trying to put something together for the wedding and you're in ninety percent of them Chaeyoung. That means something."