🏙️ “Long-Distance Love, Close-Distance Pain” - Chapter 9

 

Chapter 9: Coffee, Chaos, Closure?

"Sometimes closure doesn’t come in grand confrontations. Sometimes, it comes in the clink of a coffee cup and a silence that says it all."

Sunday afternoon.
Bandra.
Aditi rarely visited this café anymore.

Too many memories.

This was their place during college.
Same corner table. Same order. Same silly debates over which dessert was better.

But today she had agreed.

Not because she was ready.

But because… a part of her needed to face what was left unspoken.

She arrived before him.

Ordered an iced americano.

No sugar.

No expectations.

Aditya entered five minutes later.
Simple t-shirt, jeans, less polished than usual.
Somehow, more real.

He spotted her and smiled cautiously. “You still come early.”

She didn’t smile back. Just nodded.

He sat across. No dramatic gestures. No forced charm.

Silence hovered. But this time, it didn’t suffocate.

He spoke first. “Thank you… for meeting me.”

She sipped her coffee. “Don’t read into it. It’s not a beginning.”

“I know,” he said gently. “But maybe it’s not the end either.”

She didn’t argue. Just stared at her cup.

“I thought this conversation would be easy,” he continued, “but the truth is… there’s no right way to say sorry for leaving someone in the dark.”

She looked up then, her voice calm. “You don’t need to say sorry anymore.”

He blinked. “I don’t?”

“No.”
She leaned forward, eyes steady. “Because I stopped needing your closure the day I became my own.”

His jaw tightened just slightly, but he nodded.

She continued, more softly now. “This coffee? This is not for you, Aditya. It’s for me. To prove I can sit across from you, and not feel like I’m breaking inside.”

A silence stretched between them—long, but not empty.

“I miss the girl you loved,” he admitted. “She was bright, full of dreams, full of us.”

“She’s still here,” Aditi said. “Just quieter now. Wiser. And no longer waiting to be someone’s priority.”

Aditya looked down at his untouched cappuccino. Then back at her.

“I don’t want to hurt you again.”

“You already did,” she replied. “But I survived.”

He swallowed hard.

“I’m not asking for a relationship,” he said. “Just a chance to be… a part of your life. Even if it's just in the background.”

Aditi stared at him.

And for the first time… she didn’t see the boy who left.

She saw the man who was trying.

Not perfectly.

But honestly.

She stood up, picking up her bag.

He rose with her.

“I don’t know what I want right now,” she said. “But I know what I don’t want—chaos.”

He nodded. “Then let me bring calm.”

She paused. Looked at him one last time.

Then whispered—

“We’ll see.”

And walked out.

Leaving him at the table.

But this time, without anger.

Without pain.

Just possibility.

Maybe closure isn’t about endings.
Maybe it’s about clarity.
And coffee… sometimes helps.

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