She came back, papers in hand.
I figured we'd say goodbye and part ways, but instead, she said, "Let me walk you a little."And just like that, she flipped the script again.
We strolled side by side, the air between us filled with everything we weren't saying. So I took a risk. Slipped out my earphones and switched my phone to speaker. Mmm....love songs. I tried changing the atmosphere.
The kind that don't even ask for much just that you listen, and maybe feel a little too much.I kept my eyes forward, pretending to be focused on the road. But I was watching her out the corner of my eye.
She knew two of them, the songs
I caught it, the way her lips moved, barely. Not loud. Just under her breath. Like the melody lived somewhere deep in her.
And man, that did something to me.
She wouldn't look at me. Just kept her eyes low, her voice soft. Shy, but not afraid. Just… tender. Intimate in the way only silence and half-sung lyrics can be.And me? I was gone completely.
Looking at her like she was the last good thing left in the world. Like maybe if I stared hard enough, time would freeze again.
But like all things… it ended.
We reached the point where roads split.
She stopped, turned to me, and waved.
I waved back, caught in the moment, unsure whether to smile or speak.
Then she looked up at me, really looked and smiled. Damn that smile again .
That small, soft, quietly devastating smile.
The kind of smile that doesn't just end a moment ,it brands it.
Even now, I still see it.Every now and then.
In quiet nights,In random songs.
In the back of my head like it's been tattooed into memory.The walk home felt… empty.
Like all the color drained out of the world as soon as she waved goodbye.
I got home, didn't even bother to change. Just crashed onto the bed. But I couldn't shake the feeling like I'd left something behind. Like I forgot to say something to her.
I almost forgot the white rubber bag.
Still folded, still light in my hand… but heavy with everything it now meant.
I brought it close ,don't even ask me why and sniffed it.
Her.
That sweet, soft scent that had clung to her clothes… it still lingered. Faint, but unmistakable. Vanilla and warmth.Memories and maybes.It hit me right in the chest.God,
she had no idea what she just did to me.
And Joana?
She was there. Technically. Still replying my texts. Still calling me by that nickname she liked but it was different.Like a book I loved once but couldn't bring myself to reread.
Yvette had flipped my whole axis.
And worst part?
I felt it that day, the moment I should've asked her to be mine. It was right there. In her smile. In the way she sang under her breath. In the way she walked back just to walk me home but I didn't.
And now the silence was louder than any rejection.
I just lay there, holding that plastic bag like it could fill the space she left behind.
Regret was a new feeling and it screamed right at me.