Chapter 1 The rain knew before
Chapter 1: The rain knew before we did
Everyone in college admired us.
Elias and June. June and Elias, You couldn't say one name without the other.
We were admired by many while some forced to be invitedto our wedding. We were supposed to make it.
Until one evening in our final year, he ended it.
No fight. No cheating. No other girl.
He just looked at me in the college canteen and said, "I'm scared, June. I have nothing. No job, no future. I can't give you anything. I can't be in love when I'm so scared about my own life."
I cried for months. He didn't come back. He thought letting me go was love.
That was five years ago.
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Today it was raining.
The kind of heavy, Seattle rain where the roads disappear and everyone runs for cover.
I was running too. I had an interview nearby. My folder was getting wet, my sandals were slipping, and I was failing at adult life - still job hunting while everyone else was settled.
I stopped under the shade of the big building to catch my breath.
I was fixing my wet hair when I heard someone say, "June?"
That voice.
After five years, I still knew it.
I turned around.
Elias.
In a formal shirt. ID card hanging from his pocket. Hair neatly combed. The boy who was scared about his future was now a man working at an office.
He looked at me, completely shocked. The umbrella in his hand was shaking.
"You... here?" he said.
"I had an interview," I managed to say. "You work here?"
He nodded. "For two years now."
We both went silent. The rain was so loud.
I saw his phone light up. A girl's photo on the screen. 'Sophie Calling' with a heart.
At the same time, my phone buzzed in my hand. My boyfriend, Caleb. Text: 'How was the interview?'
We both looked at each other's phones. And then at each other.
Five years ago we were the best couple in college.
Today we were two strangers, dating other people, meeting on a rainy day outside his office.
"You've changed," he said softly.
"So have you," I said.
He hesitated, then held his umbrella a little more over my head.
"You're still scared of getting wet in the rain," he said with a small, sad smile.
And for a second, I wasn't 26 and jobless. I was 21 again, in college, with him.
