These Are Their Songs

It was a restless night. For Louis at least. He only slept for a total of two and a half hours. Maybe. He’d had a revelation at about half four when he woke up from his two and a half hour rest. Before sleeping, he had remembered that her favorite restaurant had been a little, old, genuine Asian diner. After his sleep, he remembered a tea shop across the street from the diner.

All night long, he had been trying to figure out a way to follow them without Liam or Jenny seeing. The tea shop was perfect. He could have “run out of Yorkshire tea” and “had a deep craving for some” that afternoon. It was perfect.

Louis left around eleven. On the way to the shop, he stops and grabs a bite to eat. He makes it to the tea shop about ten minutes before Liam walks into the diner. Liam is facing the window so that he can be on lookout for Jenny.

He hears his cup hit the ground. The tea splashes up and hits his leg. It burns slightly, but he takes no notice as he takes a few steps forward as he sees the beautiful Jennifer Hartford for the first time in years.

Her hair is longer. It seems to Louis that it’s a darker blonde as well. She’s wearing the hat. Her favorite hat. It’s a light teal fedora with a cream strap. Being a warm day in middle March, she’s wearing a sleeveless top with straps; jeans and low-cut, heeled boots. She’s walking briskly towards the diner, holding her hat to her head as she walks against the wind.

God, she’s beautiful. She’s still so beautiful. Even more beautiful actually. God, I want to talk to her. I want to hug her and kiss her and tell her how beautiful she looks.

His reasonable side rivals back. She tore your heart out and put it into the damn Kate Spade box she took with her that damned day that she tore your heart out.

But I love her. He tells himself as he looks at her through the window and smiles. Jenny Hartford is the only woman I’ve ever loved. She’s the woman that I love to this day. Yeah, his smile widens, I still love her. Always will.

“Sir. Excuse me, sir,” it’s the voice of the woman that sold him the tea.

Removing his beanie, running his hand through his hair, Louis lets out a shaky breath. “Yeah, I’m sorry. I’ll pay to replace it.” He sits down and removes his sunglasses, running his hands up and down his face.

“She’s beautiful,” the same woman comments and sits down across from him. "Did you date her?" Louis nods. Short and simple. Probably noting the sad expression drawn on his face, she places her hands atop his folded ones and looks deep in the boy's blue eyes. "Hey, if it's meant to be between the two of you, then it will happen."

How the hell would you know? He grew slightly angry at the woman. No one knows what hell I went through because of what she did to me. Because of Jenny.

Laughing at his slightly raged expression, she responds, "I know what you’re thinking: ‘How the bloody hell would she know?' right? I bet your mates told you that for a solid three months after you broke it off. Am I right?"

Nodding slowly, Louis is amazed at the stranger's accuracy. It was closer to four than three, but still.

"My boyfriend walked out on me after we'd been together for nearly three and a half years. I was broken. Felt like I'd been stomped upon like a person putting out their cigarette. A few years later, I ran into him at a Tesco and we hit it off again. A year goes by and now we're engaged to be married this fall." She pats his hands and stands up, "I'm telling you. If the two of you are meant to be, it'll happen."

The bell above the door rings. Louis smiles at the girl in a friendly manner as she goes back to the counter. After getting another cup of tea and paying for the cup he broke, he sits in the shop for a good twenty minutes before leaving. The street is silent. There is a gasp, a thud and the sound of another shop door opening.

Louis ignores it.