Okafor Beauty

Love in the rain

The "Midnight Moon sign lit up the wet street. Inside, though the air was scented with cheap whiskey and despair, it felt all the same. Rain lashed against the windows mirroring the storm that brewed in Elara. She sipped her martini, the olives settled at the bottom. Opposite her, Liam's already tired face seemed to have been shaped by some familiar weariness. He drew pictures on the foggy glass, still deep in thoughts "It's over between us, Elara," he said, rumbling low, but still breaking the loud silence between them. "We both know that." Elara's bright, mischievous eyes had lost their spark. "I know," she whispered in her soft voice, and the word was swallowed by the sad jazz pouring out of the corner, her eyes a little watery. Their love story was a whirlwind - chance encounter in a bustling bookstore, stolen glances, late-night conversations that spilled into the dawn. Two lost souls brought together by an urgent need for intimacy and bond. But then the cruel twists of life shatter even the hardest of relationships. Liam, the emerging star in the finance world, was driven by ambition. His life was your relentless pursuit of success, leaving little room for anything else. Elara, a free spirit with a soul yearning for adventure, felt herself suffocating in the gilded cage of his ambition. They had tried, God knows how much they had tried. There were many dates that turned out to be a disappointment, many desperate efforts of lighting up the fire again, but distance became wider with every day that passed by. "I'm going to be leaving for London soon," Liam elaborated, the words painting an image in the air. "Another chance to do it all over again, a blank page." Elara nodded, her heart a hollow ache, she tried to mask up but it was written all over her face, she said, "I wish you all the best, Liam." His hand reached across the table, casually brushing her fingers. It was a sudden remembrance of the old magic, just a spark, but it flickered for only an instant. "Goodbye, Elara." And with that, the next moment he was nowhere to be found, simply vanished as if he never existed, the decision was too fast, couldn't they have patched things up?...he had already given up and made up his mind. Elara now sat solo, the martini became a thing of the past, jazz music whispered sorrow. It rained on and on, erasing for ever the leftover vestiges of their love story and leaving only the scent of regret behind. She walked out of the "Midnight Moon" passing by the neon sign which light up her face giving it a ghostly glow and she was Elara knew this wasn't the end. It was a blank page to write on, an opportunity to be born all over again – it will take time to fill in. She didn't know how or exactly who, but she would eventually learn to love anew: maybe not in the way she ever loved Liam, yet with a heart that is stronger and more independent. her hair was now getting wet as she walked on, with the same past being erased by the downpour and the same future being re-constructed by it in which new uncertainties were growing accompanied by expectations of a new life.