Velma's apartment -saturday
The knock came at 2:16pm. Three short raps. Not inpatient. Not nervous. Velma opened the door with a blank tank top and short jean shorts worn lazily at her waist. No makeup. Hair in a puff. Her phone still in her hand from where she had been scrolling through thrift chairs online. Standing there,on the other side of the door,was Daniel. Plain Grey t-shirt. Clean jeans. Car keys in hand. He looked exactly how someone looked when they didn't overthink coming."Hi",he said."Hi",Velma replied. "Is this a bad time". Velma looked around her briefly. A sink full of clean plates, a silent TV, a candle burning somewhere faintly like she had been trying to romance herself. "No,come in",she muttered. He stepped inside. She locked the door behind him without a word. Daniel looked around slowly not like he was judging but like he was taking notes. "You moved since uni",he said." Obviously",she replied. He smirked "still quiet though". She moved to the couch and sat,he followed. The silence sat between them for a minute. He looked at the book stacked at her side table. Then he said "I thought of calling".
"You didn't "
"I didn't know what to say"
"Yet here you are "
"Yeah",he paused." Here am I "
She didn't ask why he came. He didn't offer it right away. They sat like that and eventually,he asked"do you hate me? ". She turned slowly "why would I hate you?" . "I don't know maybe ,for moving on,for being seen with Olivia or for showing up here", Daniel said,she shrugged," you didn't move in,you paused". He raised a brow "paused what". "I don't know, whatever we used to be",she replied him. He leaned down staring at the ceiling briefly like it held some answers he missed." I didn't come to complicate things",he finally said . Velma stood up and walked to the kitchen counter. She opened the fridge,pulled out a bottle of juice and looked back at him"you want one?". "Sure ",he nodded once. No confessions, no crying,no words that demanded closure. Just Daniel sitting on a couch, sipping a cup of cold drink In the quietness of her home. Like maybe,they weren't broken. Like maybe,they were just two people learning how to exist in each other space again.