Drake
I miss you Alys so much.
I coming back soon.
Wait for me, love.
I thought I could replace you bird brain.
The message blinked on the cracked phone screen before I could second-guess it.
The moment I hit send, everything I'd buried over the years rose to the surface.
New York—loud, alive, indifferent—had never felt lonelier than tonight.
Snow brushed against my coat shoulders as I stepped off the bus, inhaling the familiar mix of hot pretzels, exhaust, and anticipation.
Five years. That's how long it had been since Alys left London for the city that never stops moving.
I told myself distance would cure me. It didn't.
I found her in a tiny bookshop , as she used to dream about her sitting reading a hopeless romantic novel one day.
She sat behind the counter in, hair tucked behind her ear exactly the way I remembered,Her bright smile now a a slight smile.
Her head lifted at the sound of the wind whistling, and for a second, time just... stopped.
"Drake," she said, half in disbelief, half in anger.
"Hey, bird brain." The nickname slipped out before I could think about it. Her lips curved, the faintest of a smile.
"I thought you forgot that name."in a small murmur
"I tried." My voice came flirty than I intended. "Didn't work."
The air between us filled with the weight of everything unsaid ,the hugs I never sent, the calls I never made, the things that went wrong because we were both too late to fix them.because we pretend that we moved
"Why now?" she asked.
"Tss Because I couldn't replace you," I said simply. "And I finally got tired of pretending I could."
Outside, New York buzzed with life sirens wailing, laughter spilling from bars, people hurrying past. But inside that bookshop, it was just us, two familiar lovers relearning how to breathe in the same place .
She reached for the counter pen, twisting it between her fingers like she used to twirl her hair when nervous. "You still say tss when you are annoyed ?"
"Yep" I said. "some things never change."
Her gaze softened. "Maybe that's not such a bad thing."
Maybe not.
Because for the first time in five years, I believed that some endings could actually begin again.