In the lavish private room of the hotel, familiar faces from a decade past clinked glasses, their laughter and whispers weaving through the air like a drunken symphony.
Men and women, lost in the haze of booze and nostalgia, swapped stories and sly glances.
This was the first class reunion since their university graduation ten years ago, a whirlpool full of various emotions and reflections on meeting old acquaintances again.
Jimmy sat at the edge of the crowd, nursing his whiskey in brooding silence.
When old classmates recognized him and tried to strike up a conversation, he tossed out a few curt replies, his disinterest clear as day.
They got the hint and left him alone, letting him carve out a pocket of solitude amidst the boisterous chatter.
It wasn't that Jimmy was playing the aloof prick or looking down on his old peers. His mind was just elsewhere, consumed by a fire that had smoldered for a decade...
Jimmy was waiting for Elsa—his first, his only, his soul-crushing love, unseen for ten long years!
Elsa and Jimmy had split after a brutal fight over some bullshit real-world problems, shattering the purest, most intoxicating love he'd ever known.
Over the years, he thought he'd moved on, but in the dead of night, her face haunted his dreams—her bare, unadorned smile, radiant and innocent, and the tear-streaked devastation on the day they parted.
He slammed back his whiskey, the burn scorching his throat, and set the glass down with a clink.
His fingers, almost on autopilot, drifted to the old watch on his left wrist, tracing its worn edges.
It was a habit he couldn't shake, a ritual of longing etched into his bones.
The watch wasn't some fancy brand-name shit—just a cheap piece Elsa gave him on Valentine's Day during their sophomore year.
She'd grinned, her eyes sparkling, and promised they'd be together forever, like time itself would never stop.
But forever turned out to be a fucking lie! And now they were strangers, scattered like ashes…
Regret gnawed at him, a bitter pill he could never swallow.
The watch was a wreck—broken, fixed, broken again—but he couldn't bear to toss it.
It was a relic of her, a scar he wore proudly, a reminder of the love he'd lost and the lust that still burned in his gut.
Elsa was a wound that never healed, branded into his heart like that damn watch, ticking away ten years of his pathetic longing.
So when he heard about the reunion, his thoughts zeroed in on her—the woman who'd once been his entire fucking world!
His heart, numb for so long, started pounding again, a wild, desperate rhythm that made his blood sing!
—Will she show up?
—How's she doing now?
—What the hell do I even say if she's here?
He was a mess, reduced to the nervous, blushing kid who'd stammered through his first confession to her...
...
(The whole story is now free access in kindle unlimited! :) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FC352SLG)