Thank you all so much for the lovely PMs and reviews, it means the world!
I'm so grateful you all want to enjoy this journey with me!
The next Tuesday, Clare walked into the same coffee shop after her first seminar of the day.
Eli was already there, a coffee waiting across from him like he'd known she'd show.
"I wasn't sure if this was… a thing," Clare said, slipping into the seat and setting her messenger bag down beside her.
"It doesn't have to be," Eli replied. "But I hoped it would."
She took a sip. Oat milk chai. Exactly how she liked it. The warmth hit her chest first, followed by something quieter. Safer.
Gratitude.
They didn't call them dates.
Not at first.
Tuesdays just became their thing. The in-between day. The day nothing major was due and no one had evening classes. The day Clare always had a two-hour break between seminars, and Eli just happened to be finished with his screenwriting workshop.
It was easy.
Too easy.
They didn't talk about the past. Not the hard things. Not the big what-ifs or could-have-beens. Instead, they talked about everything else.
Books they were reading.
Scenes they were writing.
Professors who barely disguised their existential dread with espresso.
Clare brought her notebook filled with story ideas, and Eli would scribble notes in the margins, sometimes sarcastic, sometimes brilliant.
Eli once handed her a copy of The Bell Jar with dog-eared pages and his thoughts written in pen in the margins: reminds me of you, but in a good way.
Clare rolled her eyes, but she read every note twice.
She made him a mock press badge for Columbia's journalism club. Laminated it and everything. "In case you ever want to sneak into a press event and eavesdrop for a script."
He kept it in his wallet.
On their fifth Tuesday, Clare asked, "Do you ever think about the last time we saw each other?"
Eli didn't answer right away.
They were sitting outside this time, leaves swirling gently at their feet, fall wrapping itself around the city like an old sweater.
"Every time I leave this place," he said. "I think about how I almost let you go for good."
Clare stared at him. "I almost didn't come back."
"Why did you?"
She exhaled. "Because the girl I became while I was gone… she still missed you."
Eli swallowed hard. "I'm glad she found her way here."
They didn't touch. Not yet.
But Eli walked her to the subway that day.
And when they stood at the steps, he didn't kiss her.
He just said, "See you next Tuesday."
And Clare smiled like she'd been waiting a long time to hear those words.