Forces of Nature { A Novelette }

{ 5 | Snowflakes }

"People like us don't get second chances."

"Yes, well, that won't stop me from trying."

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Karima found herself going back to the coffee shop, even after the last confrontation there. Luckily, it appeared that that same confrontation is what kept Winston and his new girlfriend away from the coffee shop. She'd stopped looking for Natalia, too. She'd even sent her a text apologizing. She didn't feel bad when Natalia never responded. In fact, she appreciated the fact that Natalia didn't respond. It was better that way, she assumed. Natalia would come back around eventually, she knew. They'd had arguments in the past. This was similar to those. After all, Natalia would never leave Karima over something so minuscule. They'd been friends for years. They'd be friends for many more. They just had to get over this hurdle. And right now, Karima needed to get over her own personal hurdles before she could collectively get over the hurdles with Natalia. Hopefully her friend realized that.

Today when Karima entered the coffee shop, she ordered something different. Fall was creeping up and the leaves were starting to change. That meant seasonal lattes. In the hopes that the seasonal festivities of the coffee shop would help her feel better, she'd ordered something pumpkin-flavored. Now she sat at a window-seat, looking out at the passersby. It had been many weeks since Winston had left. Two months, perhaps? She had lost track of time after the first two weeks had crept slowly by. She couldn't bring herself to forgive him yet. For leaving her, for finding another woman so fast. One day, Karima hoped that she would. She knew now that he wasn't coming home. Not now, not ever. And maybe it was better that way. Surely it was better for her for him never to return. Had their relationship truly been a stellar relationship to begin with? The more she dissected it, the more she realized their relationship was anything but healthy.

She'd never forgive herself for not seeing it earlier, but all she could do now was accept the fact that the relationship she'd based so much of her future on was now forever a part of her past. Natalia had been right about everything, and Karima could accept that now. She could accept that Natalia's gut feelings about Winston had been correct since day one. She'd predicted that he was going to be one of those guys. She'd grossly underestimated how long the relationship would last, but now Karima found herself wishing Natalia had been right. Three weeks would have been much easier to move on from than two years. But she couldn't change any of that now. Winston was gone, and while she may still be recovering from a shattered heart, Karima felt that she had accepted what had happened to her. Accepted it enough that she could start rebuilding her romantic life one building block at a time. No, she wasn't going to go looking for love. Not anymore. But maybe, one day, it would come to her, and she'd let it in.

⊱⟣⟡⟢⊰

Rory hadn't been outside in a month, it seemed. It had taken just as long for him to finally tell his mother that Kasey had left him. Explaining that to his mother had been an excruciating experience, and she'd reacted worse than he'd thought. She told him it was his fault. It was his fault that Kasey left, his fault for being too much like his father, his fault for ruining the one chance at love that he had. And even though she was his mother, Rory had snapped. He'd told her everything he'd never told her over the years. He told her that he hated the way she diminished his importance, hated the way she talked to him, hated the way that everything was always about what she wanted and never about what was good for other people. And at the end he'd told her she was never going to have grandchildren—not with Kasey or anyone else. That he'd never wanted kids because he didn't want to be the kind of father he'd had. He told her that maybe, just maybe, she had contributed more to his bad attitude than either of them had originally intended. And at the end of everything, Rory told her he wasn't coming home to visit anymore, and to send love to his father. Of course he meant it in the most sarcastic of ways. Rory had always been at least marginally respectful of his parents, but after twenty-eight years of dealing with things off and on, he'd had enough. And it felt good.