#Chapter 6
Evelyn
I dip my spoon into my slightly melted ice cream and eat a mouthful of it. I savor the cold and sweet taste of it.
A cool wind whistles past me and ruffles my hair that I've braided from the front and tied in the back with only two pins. I hope the hair doesn't come loose.
/"Strawberry ice cream with sprinkles on the top. It was your favorite./"
No. This can't be happening.
The happiness swimming in my veins freezes into ice as recognition hits me.
My world abruptly stops revolving on its axis. In a second everything inside of me stills like I've been turned into a statue. With the cement creeping up from my toes and stopping at my heart, solidifying everything in the process.
Momentarily the soul imprisoned inside my body almost escapes when I hear that familiar voice for the first time in a decade.
At a turtle's pace, I glide my eyes up and in front of me stands the very person who first broke my fragile heart, scattered its millions of pieces, and then cruelly stomped onto them. And if that wasn't enough, degraded me and treated me like I was the dirt under the sole of his shoes. Like I was nothing.
The massive chest full of memories I've buried under my skin for years begins to resurface. The pain, the longing, the desperation, and every other emotion I've dealt with in the past and put a lock on, unlocks.
I stare at the ghost from ten years ago standing right in front of me.
I blink my eyes, wishing that he will disappear. Thinking it's the fault of the ice cream's divine taste that I'm hallucinating. Because there's no way he's here. Right here. Right now.
/"I can't believe it's you, Evelyn./" His relaxed face sprouts another series of fireworks of pain inside my chest, creating a havoc storm.
I gulp down whatever I'm feeling and act like I'm not suffocating inside.
/"W-What are you doing here?/" I don't know how, but somehow I find the courage to speak to him.
/"To see you./" Warren Archer's exquisite green eyes shimmer with a golden glint dawning from the fairy lights draped over the awning of the coffee shop. They look enchanted. Just like before.
/"See me. Why? You spent the last ten years pretending I don't exist. I'm sure you can go on like that forever./"
The serenity on his face turns grim and forlorn as he stares at me.
/"Trust me it wasn't like that Evelyn./" My ordinary name seems so extraordinary when it rolls off his tongue. And I hate it. I hate how his voice, his eyes, his face, his everything screams the past in my ears. The past I've thrown in the ocean with no X mark. So I can never go on a search for it. It's a hatchet that took me a long time to bury. And I had no intention of anchoring it because I knew I'd never visit it ever again.
/"Whatever it was, I'm not interested./" My throat is clogged with pent-up emotions.
So much is brewing in my heart. The very organ that suffered the most in the twisted games of this man a long time ago.
/"Stubborn as always./" The mere hint of his smile reminds me of how much charm it carries. It's a smile that makes you want to smile. It's that bewitching. Pure sorcery.
Warren takes a step in my direction, but I immediately step back—purely on instinct.
/"Don't say that. I'm not the Evelyn from before. The person you knew. The person you broke. I'm different now. And you don't know me even an inch./"
Warren slowly nods, and the lump stuck in my throat only multiplies.
/"I get it,/" He murmurs and looks down.
/"Your ice cream is melting Evelyn./" I can't stop myself from physically recoiling when he addresses me by my name. The sound that used to cause a swarm of butterflies in my stomach, now makes dragons breathe fire.
Warren Archer is the Chapter of my book I closed ten years ago. The guy I gave my heart to without him knowing. The guy who still holds my heart and doesn't know it. And he would never because he doesn't deserve to know that. He doesn't deserve me.
For a moment I drink in the sight of him.
I let my eyes assess him and analyze how time has refined him like fine wine.
The bone structure of his face had always been elegant, but now it is even more majestic. The low depressions in his cheeks give him such a cut, and the sharp line of his jawline outlines his face in an attractive way.
Even after ten years, he's as beautiful as the last time I saw him, in fact even more.
The twin green eyes he possesses are the highlight of his sculptured face. They're so gentle in color, yet lurk with intense darkness and edge. Ironically whenever they met with mine, all of the coldness and cruelty would dissipate. But that's in the past. Now there's nothing between us.
We're equal to a pair of strangers who have a past that never became a future.
I lower my eyes to his lips. For a guy, he doesn't have thin lips. Full rosy pink lips. The sight of them alone makes you wanna commit sin and not feel ashamed later, because you feel lucky that you got a taste of them. How do I know? Because I've tasted them.
/"I want to talk to you./" Slipping his hands in the pockets of his black slacks, he introduces the idea like I'm not throwing daggers his way with my eyes.
/"Talk to me? What could you possibly have to say to me after all this time?/"
The pair of broad shoulders hidden under the translucent white dress shirt and black jacket tenses at my reply. Tension rolls over his body so prominently.
/"A lot actually. Words won't even be sufficient./" A surge of pain shoots through me accompanied by misery, and my heart clenches in my chest at the sight and voice of him.