The Years Between Us

7. The Weight of Her Love

The elevator doors, which had nearly closed, slowly slid open again.

Ezra stood there, trying to steady his breathing. But he didn’t step inside. He simply remained at the threshold, as though he still couldn’t decide whether he should come closer… or let me leave.

Once again, we stared at each other in silence. And just as the elevator doors began closing for the second time, he finally spoke.

“Good night, Meara.”

Then the doors shut completely between us.

The ride down felt much longer than it had earlier that evening. The party had drained every bit of energy from me. My chest felt painfully tight, as though I’d forgotten how to breathe properly.

The moment I left the hotel, I drove away without thinking. I wanted to escape all of it. From Nadine. From Ezra. From Windele, if necessary.

At first, I intended to go straight home. But halfway there, I suddenly remembered a small coffee shop I used to visit back in high school. Without thinking much about it, I turned the wheel and drove toward it, hoping it still existed.

And strangely enough, relief washed over me the moment I saw it.

Daydream Brew. Even the name hadn’t changed.

I stepped inside, pulling my coat over the black dress that suddenly felt far too elegant for a place like this. My watch read ten o’clock. I still had about an hour before closing time.

A waiter approached and handed me a menu. “I’ll have an iced americano,” I said softly, hoping the bitterness might clear my head a little.

This place still felt overwhelmingly young. The bright walls, the mismatched chairs, the stickers scattered across every corner, the neon signs glowing lazily above the counter—everything about it was loud in a strangely comforting way.

Back then, I came here as a teenage girl. Now I came here as a mother. And somehow, the place still felt like a time capsule preserving pieces of me, even though almost everything about it had changed.

At least here, I was far away from Ezra and Nadine. That girl… for reasons I couldn’t fully explain, she had started making me uncomfortable.

When my drink arrived, I didn’t touch it right away. Instead, I took out my phone, snapped a picture of the iced americano, and sent it to Reina.

You: I successfully escaped that place.

Several minutes passed without a reply. She was probably asleep already. So I sat there quietly, sipping my coffee while watching the cars pass by outside the glass windows.

“Meara Rose?”

The voice startled me. No one had called me by that name in a very long time.

When I looked up, a tall man was standing beside my table. I searched my memory, trying to place him, but my mind came up blank.

“Yes?” I answered carefully.

“You don’t remember me?” He laughed awkwardly. “I’m Erick. We went to college together.”

Unfortunately, that still didn’t help.

The confusion on my face must’ve been obvious because he quickly added, “I was friends with Ezra. We were classmates. Sometimes we talked after you waited for his classes to end.”

And suddenly, everything clicked into place. “Ah—Erick Kim, right?”

“Exactly.” Relief spread across his face the moment I remembered him. “I can’t believe I ran into you here. When did you come back to Windele?”

“Over a month ago,” I answered briefly.

“I’m really glad you’re back. Ezra must be so happy to see you again.”

The enthusiasm in his voice faded almost immediately, as though he’d only just realized he might’ve said the wrong thing. Trying to recover, Erick forced a smile. “Enjoy your coffee, Meara. I’ll send over the strawberry cake everyone loves here.”

“You really don’t have to,” I protested politely.

But he insisted. Apparently, Erick was the manager of the café now. He waved before disappearing toward the back.

The silence returned after he left. My coffee was half-finished by the time a server brought over the slice of strawberry cake. I smiled faintly, realizing there was still one more person in this city who remembered me.

But the smile didn’t last long.

Through the glass wall, I saw a familiar car pull into the parking spot beside mine. My heart dropped instantly.

Ezra stepped out. Under the dim glow of the streetlights, his eyes immediately found me inside the café. Without wasting a second, he strode toward the entrance, pushed the door open, and walked straight to my table.

“I don’t think Nadine would be very happy knowing her fiancé left the party early.” My voice came out sharper than I intended.

“The party’s over,” Ezra answered simply as he sat across from me.

“Shouldn’t you still be with her?” I asked without looking at him, keeping my eyes fixed on the traffic outside.

Ezra didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he followed my gaze toward the street beyond the windows. “Does it bother you that I came after you?” he asked quietly.

I let out a dry smile. “Looks like Erick couldn’t resist telling you I was here.”

“Don’t blame him.” Ezra shrugged lightly.

A server arrived moments later carrying another iced americano and placed it directly in front of Ezra without asking for his order first.

I raised an eyebrow. “Wow. Does your family own this place or something?”

Ezra laughed softly.

“You want some?” I asked, nudging the untouched strawberry cake toward him.

To my surprise, he actually picked up the spoon and took a bite. “This is good,” he said casually. “You should try it too.”

He was acting far too relaxed. As though there wasn’t a painful history stretching endlessly between us.

Hesitantly, I used the same spoon and tasted the cake myself. “You’re right,” I murmured quietly. “It goes well with bitter coffee.”

Ezra smiled again. For the first time since seeing him, his face looked softer. More at ease.

“How have you been, Meara?” he asked after a while.

The question sounded sincere. Simple. Almost like an ordinary conversation between two people who had merely drifted apart over time.

I took another sip of coffee before answering. “I don’t know if I deserve to say this or not… but I’ve lived well.”

Ezra fell silent for a moment before speaking again. “Do you think… someday, you’ll finally give me an explanation?”

I exhaled quietly. Strangely enough, my heart felt calm now. The suffocating pressure that usually overwhelmed every interaction with Ezra wasn’t there anymore.

“How’s your mother?” I asked instead, deliberately steering the conversation elsewhere.

A small smile crossed Ezra’s face before he looked down, already understanding my refusal to answer him. “She passed away five years ago.”

My chest tightened instantly. I had accidentally touched the wrong wound. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright now,” he said softly.

I nodded faintly. Then silence settled between us once again.

“I never understood,” Ezra said suddenly, staring out at the dark streets beyond the windows, “why death is sometimes easier to accept than other kinds of loss.”

There was bitterness hidden quietly inside his voice. “Did I ever hurt you, Meara?”

He looked at me again, demanding the simplest kind of honesty.

“You never hurt me,” I answered slowly, meeting his exhausted eyes. “But if I had stayed back then… I would’ve taken something far bigger away from you.”

Ezra frowned slightly, confusion written all over his face. He didn’t understand what I meant at all.

“Sometimes…” I continued softly, letting the secret hang carefully between us, “a mother’s love becomes so enormous that she’s willing to ask the entire world for the sake of her child.”

I swallowed before forcing myself to continue. “I’m glad you lived well, Ezra. I’m glad you eventually became everything your mother wanted you to be.”

Understanding slowly appeared on his face. The confusion in his eyes gradually shifted into something far more painful.

“But… why?” he whispered.

His voice was barely there. As though the entire world his mother had once desperately begged for him to have had suddenly collapsed onto his shoulders all at once.