Stay By My Side - Chapter 7

Chapter 7

They stepped inside.

The café had an old-fashioned charm, decorated in muted, earthy tones. A soft melody drifted through the room, the kind of music that could make people forget, for a little while, all the burdens they had left outside the door.

She seemed to be a regular here.

The waitress greeted her with a bright smile.

“Your usual Americano?”

“Yes. The usual.”

“And for him?”

“Whatever she’s having, I’ll have.”

“You don't even know what I drink, and you're saying that already? What if it's something you can't stand?”

“Well, I like everything that belongs to Ciara. That's all.”

Seeing his innocent expression and the ridiculous little act he was putting on, she couldn't bring herself to tease him any further.

“You seem to be a regular here,” he said.

“Maybe I am. I wander around every corner of this city looking for stories to write. And whenever I'm not feeling well, I tend to wander alone. That's how I found this café. I came to think of it as a shelter for the days when storms were raging inside me.”

“So… am I the storm in your heart today?”

She hesitated, slightly embarrassed.

“If life is too peaceful for too long, another storm will eventually come. But every storm passes sooner or later.”

She paused, then looked at him.

“By the way, do you want to write something on these secret little pieces of paper? I usually leave a few words here whenever I come.”

He watched her carefully as she lowered her head, thinking deeply before writing something slowly and deliberately on the small piece of paper in her hand.

A smile tugged at the corner of his lips.

“What are you smiling at, Kelsey?”

“I was just thinking that Ciara can be childish sometimes, too. You're nothing like the ‘Queen Bee’ everyone calls you.”

A faint blush crept across her face, warmed by the heat rising from the cup of coffee in front of her—and by his words.

Amid the soft, rhythmic dripping of coffee, he finally spoke.

“I know how I feel about you, Ciara. I used to care about nothing but my work. But ever since you came into my life, you've changed the way I think and the way I live.”

He paused, his eyes never leaving hers.

“And I want to be the shoulder you can lean on whenever you have to face loneliness alone.”