The smell of coffee, which had once been almost therapeutic for me, had now become a trigger.
Bitter.
Too hot.
Too heavy.
He was still there. Sitting at the table near the window, with that same air of silent power, as if nothing could shake him. But I knew. I saw it in his eyes. The doubt. The impact. The question that screamed in the silence between us.
Ravi looked at me as if he had just seen a ghost. And in a way, that's exactly what I was: an unresolved memory he never expected to see again. Especially like this.
Pregnant.
I spent the rest of my shift floating between tables, my heart pounding in my chest and my hands too cold to hold the cups safely. I tried to keep my head high, my shoulders straight, the mechanical smile that customers expected. But inside... I was falling a
