The Miracle of You

As Michael left the residence, he suddenly felt his phone buzzing in his pocket. He took it out, raised it to his face, and saw that it was a text message.

From Camille.

He couldn’t quite describe what he felt at that second. For a few minutes, he just stared at his phone, at the first part of the message, reading it over and over, like he was in a trance.

When he finally snapped out of it, he opened the phone and started reading the message in full.

It seemed that she wanted to meet him at a coffee shop later tonight. The same cafe where they had reunited after fourteen years.

Liezel’s cafe.

He just stood there, his fingers stiff. He didn’t know how to react.

To be honest, he had never expected Camille to send him a message like this, and especially not to take the initiative to invite him. It felt uncanny, especially the timing.

Michael’s mind began to race.

What kind of reply should he give her? Should he tell her that he couldn’t make it, that his schedule was too full?

He had decided to keep his distance from her from now on, hadn’t he?

But the thought of refusing her invitation sent a pang of pain through his heart. He didn’t like the idea of refusing Camille in any way. After all, they had hardly spent any time together since their fateful reunion.

Despite everything that had happened recently, he longed to see her again. He wanted to see her face, hear her voice, and at least hope that she would touch his arm or hold his hand, even if only out of kindness and familiarity.

At that moment, he remembered Joanna’s parting words to him just earlier.

‘But is following my heart really the right thing to do?’ he couldn’t help but wonder. ‘What if I’m making a big mistake by not looking at things from a completely logical perspective? What if I’m being too reckless and letting my emotions get the best of me?’

He looked down at his phone, reading Camille’s text message one more time.

“I want you to continue to follow your heart, as you always have,” Joanna had said.

‘Maybe she’s right,’ he thought. ‘Maybe it is the right choice, and maybe it’s not.’

‘Or maybe… it doesn’t matter at all.’

With that, Michael began typing a response to Camille.

[Okay, I’ll be there at six. Wait for me.]

***

It was early in the evening when the two of them sat across from each other in the cafe.

The surroundings were noisy and busy, but the sounds were also muffled because they were within the walls of the private room Michael had reserved for them beforehand.

When he looked closer at Camille, she seemed a little more tired than usual.

He couldn’t help but notice more of her expression and demeanor. Her eyes were currently averted, staring down at her steaming hot cup of coffee. She made no move to drink or stir it.

Instead, she just wallowed in silence, just as she had earlier when Michael walked through the door.

When he sat down, she did not immediately acknowledge him. She just raised her head to look at him and gave him a small smile before greeting him with a simple “Hi”.

He greeted her back and then sat down in the empty chair across from her. He didn’t really know what to say after that, so he remained silent as well.

It seemed as if the atmosphere between them was a bit tense, as if they both knew deep in their hearts what this conversation would be about and where it might lead.

But Michael knew that this conversation was necessary, and he knew that Camille was aware of this fact as well.

Though it was short-lived, he had meant his silent promise to keep his distance from her. Despite his misgivings about the situation, he simply wanted to see her again.

He also wanted to hear everything from her own mouth. He wanted to talk, and that was all.

Camille took a deep breath and began in an uncertain tone, “I assume you know why I invited you here.”

Ah. She didn’t want to beat around the bush either.

“Maybe,” Michael said simply. He didn’t want to elaborate.

He wanted to let her speak first, at her own pace. He sensed that she had a lot of important things to tell him and he didn’t want to distract her.

And knowing her, she probably already had an outline or a speech prepared for this very moment.

“I’m sure you’ve heard the news by now,” she continued slowly. “The media has been going crazy about it. I… would have told you myself, but unfortunately…” Her voice trailed off.

“It’s okay,” Michael said, his tone free of judgment. “You can say whatever you want. I’ll listen.”

A grateful look flashed in her eyes, and she seemed to find the courage to speak. “I’m grateful for that,” she said, a small, genuine smile forming on her lips. “It’s part of the reason I wanted to meet with you today. I wanted to tell you about it myself, not have you rely on news articles or the Internet. I wanted to… talk to you about it as friends.”

“Of course,” he said with a nod. “Even though years have passed, I still consider you my friend. Even though we… have different circles now, you shouldn’t hesitate to do things like this with me.”

“I appreciate it, Noah. I really do,” Camille said with a shaky smile as she wrung her hands nervously. She seemed anxious to talk about something else – probably – but at the same time, something seemed to be holding her back.

“So, yeah… I’m engaged to Christian Callahan,” she finally said after a moment of thought. “We planned this for… I mean, we planned to tell the whole world about it. We also… talked about getting married either this year or next. We’ve been living together for a while.”

“Do you love him?” Michael asked carefully. Although it hurt him to say the words, he just wanted to be sure.

The question made Camille flinch.

Still, she said, “Yes, I do.”