The waves of love in my life

The café was warm and buzzing with quiet chatter, clinking mugs, and soft indie music. But Mira heard none of it.

Her heart was too loud.

Across the table sat Aariz—the man Lena had once loved, and maybe still did. The man Mira had only known through the cracks in Lena's voice when she spoke of "people who couldn't stay."

Now here he was. Real. Breathing. Calm.

And Mira?

Mira was not calm.

She stirred her coffee but didn't drink it. Her hands trembled—she hated that. She hated that he could see it.

He sat across from her, not saying much. He wasn't trying to be charming. That unsettled her even more.

"You're quieter than I expected," she said.

He looked up, studying her face for a moment.

"I didn't come here to impress you," he said gently. "I came to respect the fact that you matter to Lena."

Mira blinked. That stung more than she thought it would.

"Is that what this is to you?" she asked. "A formality?"

"No," Aariz said. "This is me meeting the person who's carried her soul for years. I don't take that lightly."

There was silence again.

And then Mira couldn't hold it anymore.

"She saved me," she said, voice sharp. "Not just once. Repeatedly. She picked me up off hospital floors. She sat through my silence. She gave me reasons when I had none. You can't just walk back into her life like she's yours again."

Aariz looked down, pain flickering across his face.

"I know what I left," he said softly. "And I know what I broke."

Mira clenched her jaw. "Then what are you doing here?"

He paused.

"Because I believe in second chances. Not just for me—for her too. And because sometimes, even the people who leave come back better."

Mira laughed once, bitter and short.

"People don't come back better. They come back with more regrets."

He didn't flinch. "Maybe. But I've spent the last six years rebuilding the man I wasn't ready to be back then. The one who panicked. Who shut down. I came back not to erase the past, but to own it."

Mira's eyes burned. "And what if she lets you in again? What if she chooses you? Where does that leave me?"

He was quiet for a long time.

"She's not replacing you," Aariz said, voice low. "But maybe she's finally letting herself have more than one kind of love in her life."

Mira looked away, biting her lip to hold back tears.

"I just… I don't know who I am without her orbiting around me."

Aariz leaned forward, not unkind, just real.

"Maybe this is the part where you both stop orbiting pain—and start walking beside it."

Later That Evening

Lena waited at home, pacing by the window. She saw Mira approach the building and opened the door before she could knock.

"Well?" Lena asked, heart in her throat.

Mira stepped in, face unreadable.

"We talked," she said simply.

"And?"

Mira sat on the couch, pulled off her coat, then looked up with tears in her eyes—but a softness Lena hadn't seen in years.

"He's not trying to take you away," Mira said. "But I'm scared. Because if you let him in… I'm afraid you'll stop needing me."

Lena walked over and sat beside her.

"I'll always need you," she whispered. "Just not to save me anymore."

Mira let out a trembling breath.

"And that's okay," Lena added. "Because I think… you don't need saving anymore either."

They sat in silence. Side by side. No longer leaning on each other, but with each other.