Page 53 of Meeting Her Mate

“Look not at the past but what the future holds,” Fred said. “Think of what you can do with the time you’re given. The opportunities that you have now that you didn’t have back then. Long after I’m gone, you’ll still be here, it seems. Live. For me, for all those who are gone and all the billions who came before you. Live. Don’t dwell on something that you can’t do anything about.”

I bid him farewell and went back to my home, pondering over everything that had happened today. It depressed me to think that someone had been working against me, that someone had a hand in my kidnapping, and that someone was—

I forgot what I was feeling gloomy about.

As I parted the curtains from my bedroom, I could see Alexis’s house. For the first time since I had been here, the lights inside her house were on.

And just like that, my sadness fleeted away, giving birth to hope.

Maybe there was some truth to what Freddie had said. It might be good to live a little.

Chapter 19: Alexis

“It’s great to see you back,” Vincent said, smiling slyly at me as he stood there in the doorway, hands tucked in his pockets.

“Oh, shut up,” I said, rolling my eyes at him, grinning back. “You’re all assholes. When I went away, no one came and checked on me.”

“Well, that’s not true, is it?” Vincent grinned, coming inside the house. “I heard there was a very furtive and frequent gentleman from the pack who couldn’t stay away from you.”

“You’re so bad!” I slapped Vincent on the shoulder. “How do you even know that? Did he tell you this?”

“No!” Vincent lifted his hands and shook them. “No. He’s not like that. It’s just whenever he’d come back from one of his mysterious trips, he’d come back in a good mood. You don’t have to be a genius to put two and two together.”

“Yeah, well, here’s the thing, though. Two and two are not together. I don’t know what we are, and it’s freaking me out,” I said, putting my supplies back in the kitchen cabinet. It didn’t take a lot of convincing on my part to get the place back. I had the money for rent now that I was making good bank at the warehouse. And since it didn’t make sense to have two places, I emptied my apartment and brought back my supplies here. It felt good to be back here. Yes, technically, this was just a rental property, but for me, this was the place where I had grown up, and my parents had sung and danced and cooked and lived. It might be a rental, but this was all the home I ever knew.

“I would go easy on Will if I were you,” Vince said as he helped me put my clothes back in my closet. “That man’s been through some serious trauma.”

“I know. That’s why when he said sorry, I forgave him. We’re okay-ish in general, but things have happened, Vince. Romantic things. Like…”

“Oh my God, you guys kissed, didn’t you?” Vince gasped.

“Well…”

“Get out! Seriously? Oh my God!” Vince clapped his hands together and then punched the air.

“It happened so spontaneously,” I said. “It was like; I didn’t even have time to consider what we were doing. And now, it’s weird. We are stuck in this undefinable phase where we’re neither friends nor mates. Where does a person go from there?”

“Kintsugi,” Vince said, smiling wryly.

“I beg your pardon?”

“Kintsugi. It’s this Japanese art where they take broken bowls, trays, plates, and other kitchenware and put the pieces back together with gold as glue. Fixing the unfixable. And when they’re done fixing it, it’s a beautiful thing. What was once a broken bowl is now an amazing piece of art, its cracks filled with gold. Not only is it repaired, but it’s also more beautiful, not to mention spiritual and symbolic,” Vincent said, putting the last of my shirts back in the closet. Then he started taking out my jeans and began piling them in the shelf space.

“I’m a little lost. It’s only eight in the morning, and I’m not equipped to deal with metaphors until I’ve had my coffee. You gotta be clearer than this,” I said.

“Fine,” Vince said, sitting beside me, staring out the window. “The metaphorical bowl of your and Will’s relationship shattered when he rejected you in front of everyone. You thought it was beyond repair. He probably thought that as well. But now, it would seem that fate is smearing some molten gold on the cracks and putting the bowl together, shaping it into something stronger and more beautiful than before.”

“You gotta stop watching all that anime. It’s turning you into a dweeb.” I threw a pillow in his face.

“That’s okay; you don’t have to believe me,” Vincent said as he left the room. In the doorway, he turned around and said, “I believe someone is waiting at the door. Kintsugi!”

I pushed Vincent out of my home and came face to face with Will standing there solemnly, hands behind his back. He looked tired.

“Hey,” I said.

“I see you’re back,” Will said.

“I am.”

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