The Yellow Chair

“So where do we go from here now?” she asked.

“There isn’t a place to go anymore”, he replied.
He pointed to the mugs on the table and added “Let’s finish the coffee and head our separate ways”.

She paused and looked at him take the last sip and push his mug on the tray. She fiddled with the handle of her cup and waited. She was still a sip or two away from finishing her drink.

“Finish the drink and head out” the words echoed in her head. There was no way to tell when they would meet again, if at all. She stared back at her beverage. Suddenly it seemed like a potion with powers to stop time. Maybe, if she never finished her drink, the meeting will never end and they will be caught in a little time warp. She will then be on this yellow chair, by the red brick tiles in this little café forever. Perhaps it was all she needed as well – to be able to live with the flow; living a moment over and over again without having to walk a linear time line laden with other factors and variables in her life. She smiled at her own thoughts.

He caught her smile but did not say anything. He kept looking at her, hoping for to her to say something or maybe just waiting for her to finish her coffee and step out.

She was distracted by a message on her phone when a server, pressed by other people waiting to be seated, came to check on them. The server saw his abandoned mug and hers nearly empty and assumed that they were done. He cleared the table and took both the mugs away. She looked up and saw her mug being taken away. She let out a sigh but did not stop him. The magic potion with the power to hold the universe still, was gone. Her coffee remained unfinished. Shortly after, they stepped out of the little café and were lost to the world.

The yellow chair she sat on, witnessed the whole episode and never told anyone.