Wren decided it was time to take control of what was happening to her. She was tired of feeling like a victim. She still had no idea what had happened during the lost hours of that Friday night. Though she didn’t think Wil had anything to do with the physical things that had happened to her she kept returning to thoughts of him and what looked like the severing of their relationship.
It had been easier to put Wil out of her mind while she was confronting the bizarre events over the week but as she adjusted she found herself wondering what had happened between them. Or more correctly what had ultimately not.
Wil was Wren’s weak spot. They’d met at university and shared the same social circle but never dated. Wren had very much wanted to but he always had a girlfriend or prospect and she wasn’t brave enough to take the initiative. Eventually they graduated, left school and lost contact.
It was years later that she received a friend request from him on Facebook. She wasn’t much of an internet user but it was a pleasant surprise and so she accepted. They began to chat from time to time. She was surprised to learn he’d moved back to town and he and his wife lived surprisingly near her workplace. They had a small son together but things had begun to go downhill in the last few years and they’d been sleeping separately since very soon after their boy was born. They had begun discussing divorce. Wil said it was like living with a roommate again, not a lover.
Eventually they got together for a coffee, just to catch up in person. She was nervous but the instant she saw him it was like no time had passed at all. He still had the same easy smile that she’d moped over almost a decade before. Without realizing it they talked until the very wee hours of the morning. She went home stunned that the feelings she’d thought were blunted with time had, in fact, been dormant; waiting for his return. He sent her an email the next morning telling her how healing it had been just to spend time with her. That she was one of the few people he felt understood him.
Life seemed brighter all of a sudden. All her feelings for him resurged, stronger than ever. They talked on the phone and online every day, sending texts and emails back and forth. He spoke of how unfulfilled he was, how he’d married too young, how he and his wife had rushed into things, how if he could go back in time he’d do everything differently. She combed his words over and over, wondering whether he was really trying to tell her more than he was saying or whether she was reading far too much into it.
Eventually she could stand it no longer and asked him to meet her at the restaurant where they’d first reconnected. She sat miserably in a seat across from him, trying to work up the nerve to blurt out what she’d come to say.
“It’s you,” she finally said. He paused in chewing. “I have to tell you how I feel. I know it’s complicated with you and Amie but… It’s you. You’re who I want.” She looked up at him. “You.”
Tags: Chapter Four