Chapter 113

• Haven gazed at the coffee glass before him, the steam rising gradually, disseminating into the cool air. His fingers followed the edge of the ceramic edge, but his mind was far away, lost in an ocean of tangled thoughts and feelings. Alexis’ snicker reverberated in his head, frequenting him. He could nearly see her, the way she used to sit over from him at the café, her hands wrapped around her own face, eyes filled with the warmth of shared minutes. That was a year back. Now, Alexis was planning to wed somebody else, Matthew. His chest fixed as he thought of it. It wasn’t the reality that she left. It was the suddenness of it, the way their once-perfect life had come slamming down in a matter of months. He hadn’t seen it coming, hadn’t been ready for the hurricane that had turned his world upside down. One minute, they were arranging their future together, and the next, she was gone.
• Haven pulled himself back to the show, shaking his head as if to clear the cobwebs. He looked up just as the café entryway opened, and Vanessa walked inside. She spotted him immediately and smiled, her face lighting up with the kind of warmth that Alexis hadn’t shown in months before she left. Haven smiled back, a blend of veritable love and waiting delay. Vanessa was everything he thought he needed, kind, understanding, continuously there when he needed somebody. She had been his peace amid the storm of Alexis’ absence, giving consolation and soundness when his world had been disintegrating. But there was a name that waited at the back of his mind, was Vanessa a moment's chance at happiness, or was she just a diversion from the wound that Alexis had left behind?
• Vanessa slid into the seat over from him, her hand briefly brushing his as she put her pack on the floor. "Too bad, I’m late," she said with a regretful grin. "I got caught up at work."