Coffee has a way of loosening the silence in me. On normal days, I am composed, practical, almost detached from my own emotions. But on nights like this, with caffeine lingering in my system, my mind wanders to places I pretend Iāve outgrown. It always leads back to him.
It has been five or six years since high school ended. Time has stretched itself generously between who I was and who I am now. I have met new people. I have had other crushes. I have experienced different versions of almost. And yet, somewhere deep inside, there is still a quiet space shaped exactly like him. Not loudly. Not obsessively. Just⦠permanently.
We were good as friends. That is the simplest truth. We laughed easily. We shared moments that felt light and sincere. Nothing dramatic ever happened between us, which is perhaps why it lingers the way it does. There was no ending. No confession. No rejection. Just a feeling I held privately and carried away with me when life moved forward.
I knew I liked him. I also knew I was afraid. Afraid of being too much. Afraid of not being enough. Insecurity has always been stitched into me so naturally that I sometimes mistake it for personality. So I stayed silent. I chose comfort over courage. And now, years later, I watch from a distance as he builds a life that does not include me. It hurts, especially when the person beside him is someone familiar. But I have no right to resentment. I never gave the story a chance to begin.
When I watched Past Lives, something inside me felt seen. Not because our stories are identical, but because it captured that quiet ache of unfinished possibility. The kind of connection that never fully becomes anything, yet never fully disappears either. The grief of āwhat ifā can be heavier than an actual goodbye.
I sometimes wonder how long I will carry this version of him. Maybe until he gets married. Maybe until I finally fall in love in a way that feels safe and certain. Maybe longer. The thought scares me a little... The idea that a person can live inside your heart rent-free for years without even knowing.
It has affected me, if I am honest. I struggle to open myself to someone new. I hesitate before letting feelings grow. A part of me believes that people eventually leave, so why risk the attachment? I question whether I deserve to be chosen fully, intentionally. I analyze myself: am I avoidant? anxious? Or simply someone who loved quietly and too long?
Still, I cannot regret the feelings. They remind me that I am capable of depth. I have felt happiness, hope, jealousy, grief, tenderness and sometimes all at once. Those emotions shaped me. They softened me. They taught me that my heart, despite its fears, knows how to love.
Perhaps the real sadness is not that I loved him. It is that I never learned how to express it. I have always been told I am not good with words. Maybe that is true. Or maybe I just never felt safe enough to say them out loud.
For now, I sit with the yearning instead of fighting it. It is a quiet companion since it's not as loud as it used to be, but still present. And maybe one day, when I am braver, I will love someone without shrinking. Maybe one day, someone will meet the love I have been carrying all this time.
Until then, on nights like this, I let the coffee speak for me.