I am alive, and back with a new story starring our favourite (star-crossed) couple! T~T

Chapter One

When Life Throws You Lemons, It Really Hurts

She isn't really the type who drinks (if anything, she can't hold her liquor well and the scent of beer is enough to make her feel nauseated), but just tonight, she allows herself to "loosen up," like what most of her colleagues tell her on occasion. So here she is, at the far end of the bar table, browsing her email with her mobile phone as she waits for her drink to be served.

Tashigi thought about tagging some of her friends from work along, but just thinking about the mindless chatter she has to sit through and the countless drinks everyone will consume because of happy hour already makes her feel exhausted. Besides, it's always nice to have some time alone given the nature of her work. Human interaction, in the classroom, and even more inside the department office can be pretty tiring, too. Not that she hates people—she loves them; she just needs to recharge after a long day of lectures, reading papers, and writing reports she's sure her supervisor doesn't even bother reading. She rolls her eyes at the amount of work she does only to receive little attention.

A glass of ice cold mojito is pushed to her direction. Tashigi rewards the bartender with a small smile and goes back to reading her emails, her phone's backlight illuminating her pale face. Her phone rings and a photo of a young lady flashes on the screen. It is Nami, her daughter's babysitter for the late afternoon.

"Hello, Nami," she greets with little enthusiam in her tone, "is everything alright?"

"Mhm," the young lady replies, "but Yuuhi has been looking for you for quite some time now. Here she is."

She hears some shuffling from the other line, a tired smile painted on her lips as she anticipates hearing the cheery tone of her daughter.

"Hello, mami," a soft, high pitched voice rings in her ear, "what time will you be home tonight? You already missed dinner."

Tashigi breaks into a grin at the sound of Yuuhi's voice. "Hi, darling. Mami will be home a little later than usual, okay? Don't worry about dinner; mami already ate hers from the convenient store across the university," she tells her kid. "Did you give Miss Nami a hard time?"

"I did not! I've been a good kid like I promised!" Tashigi imagines her daughter pouting, face scrunching and nose crinkling. She holds her chuckle.

"Yeah, you should keep your promise. After all, promises are supposed to be kept, right? Anyway, mami is just out doing something so I have to say goodbye now or I'll be home even later."

"Okay," Yuuhi agrees, defeat laced in her tone, and this makes her heart ache a little.

"Hey," the voice belongs to Nami now, and in the background she can hear her munching on something. Tashigi secretly prays she didn't touch her secret stash of chocolate with almonds in it. "Why are you still out? That's very rare."

The young lady sighs and reaches out for her cold drink. "Well, I'm... out for some drinks."

"Drinks? But I thought you don't drink?"

"Yeah, I don't. But tonight is an exception, I guess?"

She hears Nami hum. "Bad day in the office, I'm guessing?"

Tashigi shakes her head. "Not really, but it's been a long day for me. I guess I just want to take my mind off things? I don't know."

"Hm, sounds acceptable. Are you sure you're fine, though? I can go there and leave Yuuhi to my sister, if you need a friend."

"Thanks for the offer, but I'm really fine, Nami. Thanks for the concern, too. I just need this time for myself. I'm really sorry you have to extend your stay at my house."

Nami chuckles. "No sweat, Tashigi! I know you'll pay me extra anyway."

Tashigi snorts and rolls her eyes. Typical Nami. She smirks. "Of course, I will. And maybe next time, I'll take you on your offer, though don't count on it happening anytime soon. I'm pretty bad at drinking."

"Yes, yes. I'll hang up now. Go and enjoy your alone time. I'll put Yuuhi to sleep in a little while. Bye, Tashigi!" she doesn't even wait for her to say goodbye and the line was cut. Typical Nami. Tashigi slips her phone inside her bag and proceeds to drink her mojito.

A lot of things can happen in a year, that Tashigi knows, which means there are even more things that can happen in six years: like getting her degree, working as a head researcher, shifting careers to teaching in the university, and then marriage. Marriage is something she didn't think she'd get into until she met him—the love of her life—while she was on fieldwork. He is anything but congenial and eloquent, but he gets things done and he has this air around him that makes you feel he can be trusted with your life. He isn't bad in the eyes either, which she thinks is just a bonus among the other admirable characteristics that she found in him (even if things were pretty uphill between them the first few days they worked together). Thinking about it now, she finds it strange how she fell in love with this brute while working, and even stranger how this brute seemed to reciprocate her feelings. But she isn't in the position to be choosy, and it'd be a lie if she convinced herself that she isn't harbouring any strong feelings for this guy. They dated for three months, became a couple for a good eight months, and before the year ended, he proposed to her nonchalantly—no elaborate setups or even hidden cameras to document their engagement; just the ocean, the stars, and them.

His name is Zoro. He is a research assistant when they met, and is still a research assistant under Koshiro. Hard to believe but they were in love. Madly. A year after they sealed the deal, she gives birth to Yuuhi, now 6. They were a happy family. Were.

Now 32, Tashigi is divorced, owns custody to their daughter, and harried and stressed from all the work she needs to accomplish as an associate professor. Where have the years gone? She often asks herself every time she is left on her own, especially in those cold, quiet nights in her bedroom (before it used to be their bedroom). Sometimes she can't sleep so she goes to the kitchen and drinks a cup of warm milk to get her sleepy, and sometimes she is overcome and overwhelmed by too many thoughts and feelings that she bursts into tears and cries herself to sleep. Where have the years gone?

She hasn't seen a trace of her estranged husband since they divorced. Never even heard anything from the guy, and this used to make her stomach churn and her chest hurt for quite some time until she had gotten used to his absence. Yuuhi seems to be faring better than she did, though she notices that she's a lot more detached than most of the kids her age. It's as if their daughter was forced to cope at her age, and detachment happens to be the most convenient defense mechanism for her. This actually makes her stay up late at night, only to cry some more just because Tashigi feels guilty for the most part. Maybe if she isn't too caught up with her ambition or maybe if she allowed Zoro in every aspect of her life, perhaps Zoro would still be with them, Yuuhi would be cheerful like she used to be, and she wouldn't be spending most of her sleeping time mulling about the past over and over again, weeping, and blaming herself in secret.

The young lady snickers and shakes her head at that thought. There really isn't any use thinking of such things. Zoro is gone. The family she dreams of having is gone. Pretty soon, the life that she's worked hard for might be gone if she doesn't get it together.

But tonight, Tashigi allows herself to just be and drink. Mojito tastes nice, after all. So much better than the beers that her ex-husband favours, to be honest. It doesn't smell nauseating, too.

Interestingly, she strongly disagrees with Zoro's drinking habits no matter if he holds his liquor well, but look at her at this moment, red cheeks, sleepy eyes, and a hazy mind.

"How ironic," she whispers to herself as she wipes her lips with a napkin. She leaves her payment and a tip beside her empty glass and prepares to head home. She calls the attention of the bartender and points at her bill before standing up form the stool to leave.

Feeling a little woozy ('It was just one freaking glass,' she berates herself), she accidentally trips on one of the legs of a bar stool that isn't properly returned under the bar table, but she manages to reach out for something to stop her fall.

It's someone's hand, her mind registers, but there's something oddly familiar about it.

Tashigi looks up, smile and apology at the ready, only to have her voice caught in her throat. Her eyes widen in shock and disbelief. Of all the people she ends up tripping in front of, it has to be ex-husband.

The universe must be punishing her.

So hello, everyone in the ZoTash community (do we still have some ZoTash shippers here? I hope so)! And please forgive me for not updating Quite Unlikely and What Did We Get Ourselves Into like I should have done months ago (or in the case of the former, a year ago), if you've been following my story fr some time.

I'll give you a quick update about those two stories: I won't be updating Quite Unlikely anymore, but What Did We Get Ourselves Into is still ongoing (I've written an outline for Chapters 4-7 already!) but won't be updated in two more months. The former might go on a total makeover or something, or I might just delete the whole story, but it's more likely that I'll rewrite the whole thing with a better plot, I guess? I mean, let's face it; it doesn't really have much going on, and it's been dragged on for so long that I honestly don't know what to do with it anymore. Yup.

So anyway, here's a new story I just thought of last night (because I drank two glasses of iced coffee ), with a different writing style (sort of), loaded with more drama than comedy, which I'm more accustomed to, and much shorter than my usual stories (to make sure that I actually finish writing them, haha). And yes! It's romance!

Thank you for reading, and please tell me what you think in the reviews! It'll help tons! :D