“I’ll be dead in five days.”
Three hours into their chance meeting in a random coffee shop, Sam dropped the unexpected bomb into the conversation.
The cup of cappuccino that Alicia had been raising to her lips slid from suddenly weak fingers. The steaming liquid spilled over the table and onto the floor. Neither of them paid any attention.
Technically, they had known each other since ninth grade, although they hardly ever spoke. Sam was perpetually anxious, and Alicia was wrapped up in the arts crowd. However, there was always something under the surface between them, an attraction that remained unspoken, and unfulfilled, for over a decade. Both of them knew it, but had never had the words—or even the understanding—to fully express it. Until now, that is. Until one unwitting meeting in a coffee shop changed everything.