The Art of Letting Go

THREE

THE ART OF LETTING GO
CHAPTER 3 – COFFEE

March 30, 2000– 50 days before May 19, 2000.

CHRIS CHANGED HIS shirt, he put on a sweater and slipped on his sneakers. He planned on going outside, since he couldn't take the feeling of loneliness just by staying inside his own apartment.

He just fully bought it last month, Amber used to help him save it up. She works in a coffee shop in Boston, just to cover for her own expenses, her family doesn't know about it but she and Chris are going for long term plans.

And that involves them buying their own place.

Amber helped him pay almost half, and he was the only one left to finish it.

Chris stepped out of the building, he placed his hands on his pockets and began walking, the thing about California, is that it is very hot in the morning but cold in the middle of the night.

His thoughts are more scattered than it was when he was just alone, but it is better than thinking of things that could never happen anymore. For instance, living together with Amber in the apartment that they both paid for.

But the silence in there is deafening that he could hear his own heartbeat pounding, he has thought of other ways to fill the gaps, the emptiness in his heart, everything is a lot easier said than it is actually done.

He had girls come over, but he gladly didn't catch feeling for any of the girls who came over, sex is just a one-time thing for them. Not on THAT night though, he fell in love with her more than ever.

Afterwards, he knows, Chris knows better than to break Amber's heart, but they are both breaking by simply being together with whom he would never stand a chance with, not against her family, not against the people she surround herself with, not with the future that he thought the he could ruin when he gets together with her.

But nothing mattered at that time, nobody could ever think straight when they're in love, that's one of the fucked up thing about it.

Chris was walking empty-minded that he finds himself in front of a coffee shop, it wasn't Starbucks, but he remembered how much Amber liked coffee. So he decided to get himself one.

As he entered the coffee shop, he could smell and hear the coffee beans being grounded in the coffee maker, the small chatters of students and adults doing their own business, discussing something from the screens of their laptops and phones.

He thought, these are the kind of people that she has to face when she worked at a coffee shop in Boston, he could never afford these kind of things back then, but as things are becoming stable for him, a cup of hot latte could never hurt him anymore.

So he sat down a chair for two and drank through his coffee, he is actually not a fan of coffee. But tonight, he could be.

SNAPSHOT:

"I'm craving for some iced coffee, it's driving me insane!" Amber said walking over to Chris as she dialled endelessly on the telephone, she sat on the trunk of the pick-up truck.

"The upholstery dude is not answering you?" Chris asked

"He finally did after trying to give him a call for the past 2 hours! My dad's gonna kill me." She groaned and harshly tapped on her phone again "and Felix is not answering any of my calls, he's supposed to be here 10 minutes ago"

He squinted his eyes and looked at her, she furrowed her eyebrows "what are you doing?"

"I've seen you better" then he sat down next to her "you can hold it for another 4 hours, then we can get the hell out of here and you're going to have some coffee"