Feelings don't die

Part 2

Melanie didn't know how to push the conversation any further, but as she was on her way home, Helen was the one to continue it.

Helen: I don't have to work tomorrow. How about you?

Melanie: I'll get off at 6 🤷🏼‍♀️

Helen: How about I pick you up and we go get food after your shift?

She wanted to just say yes, but being picked up from work scared her more than she liked to admit. Mattes was already asking questions. She didn't need to add fuel to the fire. Why was it so hard for him to understand she just wanted her friend back???

The message was left unanswerded for a while. Melanie just couldn't find the words. Not only did she not want to be picked up at work, but she also wasn't sure if this was supposed to be a date. After a good 10 minutes, she ended up just calling Helen. That way, there would at least be fewer misunderstandings.

"Melanie? Hi. Everything okay?" Helen answered the phone.

"Helen.... Hi." Melanie sighed. Somehow, this turned out to be a rather hard conversation for her to have.

"Hello? Are you still there?" Helen asked after a few moments of silence.

"Yeah, sorry" Melanie immediately answered. She took a deep breath and finally gathered the courage.

"Why are you calling?" Helen asked in a soft tone.

"I... I'd like to hang out tomorrow. But can we meet somewhere instead of you picking me up?" Melanie asked.

"Mattes is already asking questions since we saw each other today and I really just don't need to give him anymore fuel, you know?" She explained haistily, hoping her friend would understand.

"I forgot about how annoying he is" Helen laughed.

Melanie just sighed in relief.

"How about we meet at Tar's then? 6:30?" Helen suggested.

"I can do that..." Melanie was now smiling like an idiot. She was more excited about this than she'd probably admit to anybody.

"Good. That's settled then. Are you on your way home?" Helen asked, continuing the conversation.

"Yeah. Finally" Melanie laughed.

"Tough day?"

"Kind of yeah. We had a hate crime today. And... it's just always so frustrating..." she sighed.

"Tell me about it. Double minority isn't fun" Helen half laughed.

"Yeah I can imagine. At least we found the asshole today. But poor woman..." Melanie explained, probably already sharing more details than she was legally allowed to.

"Oh wait.. Lilly? Like Lilly Willis?" Helen asked.

"I....am not allowed to share any information as you know..." Melanie tried getting out of it.

"That's enough of an answer for me. And I know Lilly. We've been friends for a few years but we barely saw each other because I was always somewhere pretty far away..." Helen admitted.

Melanie's "Oh..." was followed by a few seconds of silence before she asked "So... how was your day?"

"Well... seeing a friend you haven't seen in a while be brought into hospital on your first day surely wasn't what I had hoped for... but she'll be fine" Helen answered.

"Yeah that sucks..... Hey, I'm so sorry to cut this short but I'm almost home so..."

"No worries. It was good talking to you again"

"Yeah you too. I'll see you tomorrow. Bye"

"Bye Mel"

Shortly after that she made her way into her apartment.

The next day, Melanie's shift was uneventful, but she did have Helen on her mind all day. They were only friends. Helen knew that, too. Absolutely nothing to be worried about.

She left perfectly on time and made her way to the restaurant they'd planned to meet at. Thank god Helen was so understanding.

As the restaurant came into sight, she saw Helen standing infront of it. Weird of her not to go in but sure.

"Hey" Helen's soft voice felt as familiar as ever. It was strange. They hadn't seen each other for so long but none of the familiarity and weird feelings ever truly vanished.

"Hey. Good to see you" Melanie immediately went for the hug and Helen certainly didn't reject.

"Let's go in then. I hope you didn't have to wait too long" she said as they pulled apart.

"Don't worry about it. I barely just got here too." Helen answered.

"Aneza, table for 2" she then told the waiter, glad to have reserved a table as the place was quite busy.

They were shown to their table which turned out to be in the cutest little corner. Both women were smiling as they sat down. They missed this.

"Sorry again for all the hassle with this..." Melanie started after they'd ordered already.

"Hey, don't even think about it. It's totally fine. I've met Mattes. Remember when he tried so hard to get me to go on a date with him or something?" Helen laughed and Melanie was cackling too.

"Oh god... I almost forgot " she let out between loud laughs.

"So sad that you didn't get to see his face when he finally realized. His whole world fell apart for a second" they were both still laughing. Probably loud enough to annoy other costumers at this point but neither of them cared.

"Trust me, he was happy as could be when he told me" Melanie added now.

"God... I'll never understand men" Helen sighed, a smile still evident on her face.

"Well good thing you don't exactly need to"

"True" Helen's smile was a bit wider again. After that, they sank into a few seconds of silence.

"So... where have you been for the last 10 years?" Melanie eventually asked.

"Mh... good question. Everywhere and nowhere really. I moved around a lot. I was in Berlin for almost 2 years. But most other things were more like a few months..." Helen explained.

"So why Hamburg again now?"

"To be honest...  I feel like I'm getting old. I want a bit more stability. And I got a good job offer here so why not. Berlin isn't too far and I have people I know here too... feels right"

Melanie had a thousand more things she wanted to ask but food was quick to arrive and so they ate mostly in silence.