write4ten :: share

To set the scene, we are currently three years post-breakup. Lauren has called Paul from Amsterdam, and left a message. Paul has worked up the courage to call her back. And a bit after that, we find ourselves here…

~~~

“It’s just, I don’t know, it all seems like a distant memory. But then I do something or hear something or see something, and it all comes flooding back, and I start missing you, and missing us, and wonder if we tried hard enough. and then I think, if we were meant to be that we would have made it, despite everything.” Lauren said, watching her hands intently, as they twisted the napkin between her fingers. Anything to distract her, to avoid looking at Paul.

“Despite everything, Lauren? That last 12 months was hell, and you know it. It would have tested marriages of fifty years. What chance did a couple of kids like us stand? I loved you, and missed you and it seemed no matter what we did, it was all just too hard.” Lauren was shocked at the emotion in Paul’s voice. The anger and sadness echoing through his words. Unlike her, he was brave enough to look at her as she spoke, as if trying to make sure she truly heard every word, each nuance and meaning of what he was trying to tell her. “I never doubted for a second that we were meant to be together. But sometimes life has a way of beating the crap out of destiny, or fate, or whatever it is you are trying to blame for us. Because it wasn’t fate. It wasn’t that we didn’t love each other, or want it badly enough. It was that we were young and apart and struggling to find where we fit in the world and how we could make that work for us together. So don’t you dare tell me it’s because we weren’t meant to be, when we were. We were Lauren. And I think the fact that you called me tell me you think so too.”

“Really? You think you still know me well enough to know what I think or why I do anything? I haven’t heard from you in three frigging years, and suddenly you still know me and think we were meant to be. Then why the hell didn’t you fight for me then? You just let it all slip away. That’s a really great way to show me how committed you were and convinced we should be together. You know what I think? I think by the end you were looking for an excuse.” Lauren felt her own anger rise as she spoke. How dare he sit there and pretend like none of this was his fault.

~~~

This little snippet comes courtesy of the weekend’ Write4ten prompt – “share”. It’s kind of a tenuous connection, I know. But there is more to this scene, and the prompt immediately sent me down this rabbit hole. There is more sharing of pertinent information a bit further into the “discussion”, but I’m saving that as a treat for my lovely beta readers…

{you can read all the published Lauren and Paul story over here.}