Friends.

The last time she’d seen him, he was disappearing through the door of the Starbucks they usually stopped by to get coffee from. And now here he was, half a year later outside the same Starbucks (coincidence? She didn't really believe in those)  standing in front of her, grinning that half grin of his that always made her smile, grinning at her as if the last five months they’d been apart had been just a bad dream that she couldn't shake off. 

But she knew, just as well as he did, that it was not a dream. He had really left her with no answers but an unexplained text that said “I need some time to figure out who I am” that pissed her off to no end. She could respect a person’s need for discovering their true self but vanishing into thin air was so not cool. But she was glad to see him because he was her friend, her best friend, he always would be. Her friend with whom she’d spent her whole childhood, who knew every single thing that mattered, who knew her. But because he was her friend she was not letting him get off so easily. She put a hand on her hip, tilted her head to the side and glared at him. Slowly that lazy grin of his faded and he held up his hands.

“I can explain.” He said. When she kept glaring at him he took a step towards her, hands still raised. “Or I can get on my knees and start begging for your forgiveness, whichever you prefer.”

She barely contained her smile but kept scowling at him. “How about you do both? Starting with the begging and kneeling, of course.”

“Of course.” With a dramatic flourish he bowed. He dropped to one knee and looked up at her. She started tapping her foot impatiently and tried very hard not to laugh. A few people were giving them odd stares and she knew this was really wounding his ego. After a barely audible sigh he put his other knee down as well. As he was about to speak, she burst out laughing. Now it was his turn to glare at her. He moved so he could rise but she halted him.

“Wait, wait. Hold on a moment.” She pulled her phone out of her bag and opened the camera app. “I need to capture this moment forever.”

He started getting up but she pushed on his shoulder. “You haven’t begged so this is the least you can do after you've been MIA for months.” She fixed him with a pointed look.

He sighed. “Fine. But be quick.” He looked around at the people passing by and scowled.

The look on his face made her giggle. She took her sweet time snapping a couple of pictures, making him turn this way and that before she commanded in a faux queenly voice for him to rise.

“Now can we get out of the cold and get some coffee so I can tell you where I've been?”

And because she was never one to fight frequently and hold grudges she forgave him,forgave him even before he’d apologized. She nodded and he pulled her in a warm hug and with his hand over her shoulders he pulled her into the warm Starbucks where they sat with warm cups of coffee in their hand and talked for hours as if no time had passed at all since their last encounter.