Page 3 of Reclaiming Love

Chapter 2

Noah stared after her long after she had walked out of the coffee shop. He watched through the glass windows as she made her way across the road, her now familiar thick, long hair falling loosely over her back. It had been the first thing that he’d noticed. Shiny, luscious almost caramel brown, it had been the thing that had drawn him first. When he looked at the face framed by such beautiful hair, he’d been startled to see a face so full of sadness. It immediately made him want to know why.

The more he became aware of her, the more he seemed to bump into her even though he knew she hadn’t noticed him once.

Until this morning. And then it had been a double whammy. Not only had he found out her name, but he’d managed to speak to her too.

He collected his order but his thoughts strayed back to the girl; this morning she’d seemed even more distant than usual.

There was more of the sadness; it was subtle and hidden, but it was there all the same. He could sense it somehow, the signs that gave things away. Signs that revealed discomfort. And unease.

Of people hiding things that pained.

Once he, too, had known someone who was sad and hurting so much inside that she had hidden it completely. He hadn’t known it then. But now, in the fullness of time, he was able to look back on it all.

He knew of the carefully constructed, polished to perfection exteriors people put up so that they could hide the very things they didn’t want others to see.

Maybe Melissa had sadness and secrets too.

If he’d only been as observant before, he might have been able to do something.

Melissa looked nothing like Bree; that wasn’t the reason he found himself looking out for her. His memories mingled with the aroma of coffee beans as he remembered the girl he had lost.

“Bree like the cheese?” he’d asked her, going back a decade to the first time he’d met her, when they were both freshmen in high school.

“I hate cheese.” She’d laughed, crinkled up her nose. They’d started dating not long after. It was a high school romance, full of angst and discovery, new highs and bottomless lows.

But it was nothing compared to the depth of love the second time around, when he’d come back home from college.

This time around it had been the real thing. But now it, too, was gone. It was time to lay those ghosts to rest and try to move on. That was what everyone around him said. It didn’t make it any easier though.

He took his coffee, brought himself back to the present. Following in Melissa’s footsteps he dragged himself from the warmth and out into the wall of gray coldness outside.

At least he now knew her name. Melissa.

She didn’t know it, but she was the first girl who had ignited a flicker of interest in him.

His parents kept telling him, as did his friends, that a year was a long time and he had to move on. And that was exactly what Noah proposed to do.

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