Nine

You're the only one I wish I could forget,
The only one I love to not forgive,
And though you break my heart, you're the only one.

—"Broken Hearted Girl" by Beyonce

Starbucks, Manhattan, New York
Saturday, August 28th, 2009
10:15 am

Anna sat quietly in the corner of a small café, dressed casually in a black shirt and dark blue jeans, seeing as she had no intention whatsoever of stepping inside her office anytime that day. Amber eyes fixed on the screen of her Blackberry, she waited for her friend to make her appearance.

The woman had called her earlier in the morning and practically forced her out of bed under the pretext that she had something important to communicate to her. Anna had objected, of course, saying that the phone was a good way of communication as any, but eventually relented. Kate knew how to choose her words, and with that big mouth she owned, the blonde almost always ended up giving in.

Five uneventful minutes passed, and she began to regret that particular trait of hers. Because it wasn't Kate who sat down across from her, a smirk on her face, her eyes shining with victorious happiness.

Instead of snapping at him and causing a scene like she suddenly had the urge to, the blonde just sighed in exasperation and gently placed her phone on the table, her hands coming up to cover her face as she fought the annoyance back. She wouldn't want to start screaming at him here, in a public place. And besides, why should she? It wasn't going to work—she knew that by now.

"Why is it that I'm not surprised?" she drawled, sounding quite bored, as she leaned her head on one of her hands, looking up at him.

Somehow, Yoh found the courage to smirk once more, causing her to narrow her eyes at him. "I don't know," he answered simply. "I suppose you saw it coming one way or another."

Anna took a deep breath in an effort to calm herself down, willing her temper to curb, and then exhaled slowly. Placing her hands flat on the table, she straightened her back.

"Alright, Yoh," she said. "Let's lay the cards on the table. Tell me what you want from me."

"Simple: I want you. But as I said before, I want to make it right this time. So, I came here—"

"You made my friend get by your side, yes," she promptly added, nodding mockingly.

Yoh smiled at her intervention, but continued, "—in hopes that I would get to have a normal conversation with you. With Anna, my stubborn ex-fiancée, not Anna, the successful psychologist."

"Okay, fine," she answered, surprising him. "Let's talk."

He frowned. "What's gotten you in such a good mood?" he asked.

Anna rolled her eyes. "I'm not in a good mood," she denied. "It's just that… I've thought about it, you know? And I've come to the conclusion that, in order to get rid of you, I have to play by your rules."

For a moment, he was quiet, seeming to contemplate her words, before raising his eyebrows and nodding slowly. "That's… that's good, I guess."

"You think so?" she drawled out uninterestedly, twisting her phone in her hand.

"Yes," he answered firmly. "It's a chance. And that's all I need. I didn't come all the way to New York with the sole intention of winning you back. I know what I've done is unforgivable, even though it was actually your stubbornness—your refusal to let me explain myself—that got us here."

Upon hearing that, Anna opened her mouth to speak, her eyes already shooting last-minute warnings at him, but he raised a hand in the air in a sign for her to keep quiet. And although she wasn't quite sure what exactly drove her to listen to him, she did. She told herself it was only because she wanted to get it all over with; fighting would only prolong things, especially with Yoh's stubborn nature.

"I betrayed your trust. I hurt you. And I'm immensely sorry. I won't lie to you: I would love nothing more than to spend the rest of my life making it up to you. But if you can't—or simply don't want to take me back, I'll understand. If you think you'll be happier without me, I'll leave in a heartbeat."

She could tell how much it pained him to say those words, despite the fact that he hid it quite skillfully, and for the first time ever, she found herself blaming her ability of reading people so damn well.

Yoh telling her that he loved her and asking for forgiveness every five minutes had become something normal—something she could handle. But seeing and hearing his pain—the pain that resembled her own so much—was too much for her. Why? Because it made her realize just how shallow she was being about this whole thing.

Yoh was right—it was her stubbornness that had pushed them apart. She knew it and she admitted it. But that had been only because she had wanted it to—because she still wanted it to.

Her entire body tensing, she took a deep breath and looked away from him, all of her previous boredom melting into awareness—a fact which she wasn't grateful for.

She was getting the very same feeling she had the first time they talked, three days ago; she knew things would not turn out alright. Nothing would ever be the same after he spoke, regardless of the apparent reassurance his next words brought.

"But first, I want you to listen to what I have to say. Maybe my words mean nothing to you now. Maybe they won't make you change your mind, like I hope they will. Maybe they will seem like a total waste of time for you. But I need to say them probably just as much as you need to hear them. Because, if anything else, they will give us both the closure we need in order to move on."

Pictures of her outfit on my profile.

Review!