Ana

Ana curled her comforter around her tighter. She knew that Kate was waiting for her to come out for dinner, but she couldn't convince herself to leave the comforting warmth of her bedding.

Ever since she had walked out of Christian's apartment two days ago she had felt a heavy numbness, like she was fighting her way through a pool of maple syrup with every movement. She hadn't even cried as she mechanically rode the bus home from his pent house. She had refused to drive the car Christian had given her home. She didn't want to look at the reminder of him. Every time she thought of Christian she felt like her heart was trying to thump its way out of her chest. It hurt. Like someone was hitting her chest with a giant hammer.

When she had gotten home, Elliot and Kate had been mid-make out. They had looked up with guilty smiles like kids caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Kate called for her to come finish watching their movie with them, but she shook her head, afraid that if she spoke her voice would tremble. Kate and Elliot were the picture of a couple in love. Everything she had wanted, everything she thought she would have was right there on the couch with Kate and Elliot, and it made her sick to look at.

Instead she had gone straight to her room, locked the door and bathed in her self-pity. But today was Sunday which meant work was tomorrow. Kate knocked on the door and she snapped out of her reverie.

"Ana, are you coming out?," Kate called from outside the door.

Ana closed her eyes and willed herself to move. Slowly she rolled back the covers and climbed out of bed. She knew her friend was worried about her. The least she could do was eat the dinner that Kate had spent all day making.

Christian

Christian watched the clock on the microwave tick away the minutes. He sipped slowly on his wine, not really tasting it as much as acting out of habit. His dinner lay in front of him, untouched. This had been his life before Ana. He had eaten dinner at 7 PM every night like clockwork. He had spent years eating by himself, and he had never minded – until now.

He wondered what Ana was doing. Was she eating enough? Was she happy?

It had been two days since he had seen her. Two days that seemed to go on forever. He hated not being able to talk to her, he hated not waking up next to her and he hated the empty sound of his apartment without her. At first he had tried to stay busy. He wrote several contracts and replied to all of his emails, and when he could think of nothing else to do had resorted to driving around the city trying to pretend he wasn't visiting all the places he had been with Ana.

But nothing made the ache in his chest go away.

When Ana had walked out of his apartment, she had asked him to not to try to contact her, and he understood why, but right now he wanted nothing more than to see that cheeky smile and to hug her so close that she could never leave him again.

Instead he finished his wine and trudged to bed. He wasn't sure what he was going to do tomorrow, but he wasn't sure he cared either.