THE WALL BETWEEN US

THE SILENCE AFTER THE STORM

THE SILENCE WAS LOUDER THAN THE RAIN HAD EVER BEEN. Ella sat at the edge of her bed, still wearing yesterday's clothes, her phone buzzing with Roger's name lighting up the screen.

" I'm outside. Can we talk?"

The message felt heavier than the storm that soaked Stanley's confession. Her heart thudded against the guilt she hadn't spoken, the kiss she hadn't forgotten, and the truth she wasn't ready to face. She opened the door slowly and there he was – Roger, holding flowers, smiling like nothing had changed, but everything had.

Roger’s smile faltered the moment he stepped inside. The flowers trembled slightly in his hand, like they knew they didn’t belong here. Ella took them without a word, her fingers brushing his, and for a second she wished she could rewind time—erase the kiss, erase the rain, erase the ache in her chest that refused to leave.

“I missed you,” Roger said, voice low, eyes scanning her face like he was searching for something she wouldn’t say.

She nodded, forcing a smile. “I know.”

But the silence between them was thick. He sat down, and she followed, the flowers now abandoned on the coffee table like a lie wrapped in petals.

“I’ve been thinking,” he said, “about us. About how distant you’ve been lately.”

Her heart thudded. He knows. He doesn’t know. He suspects.

“I’m just tired,” she whispered.

Roger leaned forward. “Tired of me?”

She opened her mouth, but no words came. Just the echo of Stanley’s voice in the rain: “You’re not stepping back, that shows that you want this.”

TO BE CONTINUED...