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Sisi was, simply put, unusual. She was unlike anyone he'd ever met in their circles. She lacked the artifice and the malice he was used to. And though he was still wary of sharing too much of himself during that meeting, he couldn't help but answer her inquisitive questions, doing the bare minimum to keep his façade up.
So much so, that she saw right through him.
His mouth twitched as she called him out for it, telling him she saw his telltale, that his stutter was a conscious decision and that there was a pattern for the way he paused after a syllable.
He was…stunned.
But then she smiled.
"Don't worry. Your secret is safe with me," she winked at him.
In that moment, he decided to gamble. And he gambledright.
"Thank you," he whispered, seeing the understanding in her eyes, but more than anything the kindness.
That meeting would only be the first as the two fell into a comfortable friendship.
"Maybe there's still a chance," he told Sisi in an effort to comfort her.
They were sitting in her drawing room. It was where they usually met since her family was pretty strict about decorum. And though they considered Raf innocuous because of his innocent manner, that didn't mean they weren't watching them closely. They were alone, but the door was wide open for anyone to walk in at any point.
"No," she declared confidently. "It's done. It's so done," she shook her head.
She'd recently been through a bad breakup that only Raf knew about, her relationship with one of her brother's friends a secret from everyone else.
"I hate that I have to pretend that everything is fine. That…" a sob escaped her lips, and she immediately looked towards the door, making sure there was no one nearby. "That my heart isn't breaking every time I think about him."
"It will get better with time. I know it will," his lips tightened into the semblance of a smile. He knew exactly what she was going through. But compared to her, his situation seemed paltry. Sisi had been with Vlad in all ways a woman could be with a man—they'd been a couple.
Raf… He'd had an internet friendship that he'd hoped would turn into something else. And he'd ended up being ghosted by his only friend. His wasn't a tragic tale. It was simply a pathetic one.
"Has it happened to you?" she blinked the tears away.
"Something like that," he shrugged, yet with a little coaxing, she managed to get out of him exactly what had happened with curiouscat and how that had affected him.
"I don't know what I did wrong," his voice trembled as he ended his story, too much emotion poured into those words.
"Raf, I'm so sorry," Sisi said. "I didn't know you'd been through something like that, too."
"Yeah, but we've never even met. It sounds so silly," he attempted a smile for her benefit.
"It's not silly at all," she drew back, her features steeped in consternation. "You clearly had feelings for this person. What does it matter if you met or not? You spent years talking. If that's not a relationship, then I don't know what is…"
"It wasn't like that," he lamely argued. And it hadn't been. They had only agreed to try to take their friendship to the next level that time.
Raf couldn't see how much curiouscat's disappearance had affected him, and that his reaction had been anything but normal. Yet in his mind, because they'd never taken that official step, it would always bejusta friendship.
A doomed friendship.
"So what? Your feelings are still valid," she told him sternly before breaking into a smile. "Look at us. We're a pair of lovesick fools, aren't we?" Sisi breathed out.
Raf could see she was doing her best to rein in her emotions. Her eyes were watery, her nose red from holding her emotions at bay.
"I reckon we are," he agreed hopelessly.
Time passed and their friendship deepened.
It wasn't what he had with curiouscat, but it was a system of support that helped him rebuild himself from the bottom up. And with Sisi by his side, Raf started thriving again.
