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My mind played back over the previous night with Kai as I pulled my laptop from my bag that was tucked under my desk. I sat it down in front of me and felt as if I was metaphorically brushing a layer of dust from the top of it.
It had been many months since I opened the document that held the manuscript I was too afraid to touch. I never gave it a title and I never bothered to try and plot a story. It was more so just a series of different scenes that was me bleeding my feelings out onto the keyboard.
It was a tragic love story, but it was one I planned on giving a happy ending to. When I first started writing it, I was in a bad place mentally. My thoughts kept circling back to Kai and I couldn’t help but make the story parallel to our own. At the time, I didn’t see how there could possibly be an ending that was happy, so I had closed my laptop and tucked the manuscript away.
But now, I felt a different source of inspiration. It was one that didn’t come from a place of longing and heartbreak. Instead, it was as if I were seeing things from a different light, a new perspective. Perhaps even the most tragic of stories could have a happy ending.
My stomach rolled with anxiety as I opened up the document and my eyes began to scan over the words. There was so much heartbreak and pain woven within every sentence I had crafted. A part of me wanted to deconstruct it all and make it a little lighter, but I knew I couldn’t. Not when that was what I was feeling from my heart at the time.
With my history of working in publishing and reading and editing hundreds of raw manuscripts, I knew what I was sitting on wasn’t garbage. This story was something I could work with. It was a masterpiece in its roughest stages.
It was the story of us.
Suddenly, the screen of my laptop began to move toward the keyboard as it was closing on its own. My eyes flew up and my breath caught in my throat as I saw someone was on the other side of the desk pushing it closed. Giana Cirone. A friend I had shut out many years ago when I left Orchid City. Someone I had left behind because of her connection to Malakai.
She looked down at me with a soft smile on her face and I moved back as she closed the laptop completely. I lifted my hand to wave at her as I felt a bit shocked to see her.
“Hey, stranger,”she signed to me with a mischievous smile.
I smiled back at her, feeling a twinge of guilt in my chest. “Giana,”I signed back, even though I knew she would be able to read my lips. I learned sign language when we were kids so I would be able to talk to her then.“How are you?”
“I’m good. Really good, actually. I just moved back here last month and I heard from my brother and Malakai that you were back in town too.”
My eyebrows pulled together.“Did Kai tell your brother?”
She nodded and rolled her eyes.“Even after all these years and Malakai being the way he is, my brother still has a soft spot in his heart for him.”
I laughed softly and shook my head.“Nico always did.”I stopped signing for a moment as the laughter vanished and my eyes softened.“I’m sorry I didn’t really keep in contact with you or let you know I was home.”
Giana held her hand out to stop me.“Nope. I’m not here for apologies or anything like that. I was hoping we could just pick up where we left off, like none of that ever happened.”
Her words caught me by surprise and I careened my head to the side.“Why? I essentially ghosted you after I moved away. Why would you still want to be friends after that?”
“Because I know what you were going through, Winter. You don’t owe me any explanations. Do I wish we wouldn’t have lost contact that whole time? Absolutely. But I’m also not going to hold that against you. I’m not going to let that stop us from having a friendship now.”
Perhaps this was how Kai felt with me. I didn’t feel as though I deserved her forgiveness or for her to even want to try and have a friendship with me now. She was the one who reached out to me over the years and tried to maintain our friendship; I was the one who gave her short answers and avoided seeing her.
Her brother was Kai’s best friend. My mind couldn’t help but group the three of them together. Anything that had to do with Nico or Giana sent my mind spiraling back to Malakai Barclay. They were a part of my life because we grew up in the same area, but it was Nico and Kai being friends that brought Giana into my life.
“If you don’t want to be friends anymore, I completely understand,”she signed to me as a look of understanding washed over her eyes.“I didn’t mean to come on strong. I just wanted you to know that I don’t care about what has happened in the past.”
Giana had dealt with a lot in life. Being deaf proved to be a challenge with some people who just weren’t understanding of it. She was used to people leaving and the rejection. And that broke my damn heart.
I shook my head at her before signing my response.“Of course I want to be friends with you. I know I wasn’t a good friend in the past and I really do apologize for that. I should have handled things differently—better.”
“We’re not apologizing, Winter.”She smiled at me.“We’re going to let bygones be bygones and move on. Does that sound good to you?”
My smile matched hers.“That sounds perfect to me.”
“Great,”she signed back to me.“So, I don’t want to bother you while you’re working. Did you want to get dinner and we can catch up on all the things?”
My phone vibrated from beside me on the desk and I saw Malakai’s name on the screen. I stared at it for a moment before looking back to Giana.“Yes, of course. Let’s meet at Donovan’s Kitchen at five-thirty?”
“I’ll see you then,”Giana signed back to me before she turned around to leave me to my work. I watched her as she disappeared through the front door, feeling a sense of peace wrapping its arms around me.
I was beginning to think that maybe coming back here wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be.
Picking up my phone, I opened up the message from Kai, a smile pulling on my lips as my eyes scanned his message.
