Chap­ter XIV unfolds in the heart of Brook­lyn, New York, a neigh­bor­hood that is known for its end­less stream of cof­fee shops, each serv­ing as a tem­po­rary escape for the city’s busy res­i­dents. For Hen­ry, this par­tic­u­lar cof­fee shop, Roast, is a place he’s inten­tion­al­ly avoid­ed. This is not because of the aro­ma of fresh­ly brewed cof­fee or the quaint ambiance, but because of the painful mem­o­ries asso­ci­at­ed with it. It was here that he and his ex-girl­friend, Vanes­sa, had their infa­mous breakup, which Rob­bie, his close friend, had humor­ous­ly dubbed the “Great Fire of 2013.” Hen­ry had tried to dis­tance him­self from this chap­ter of his life, but today, despite his best inten­tions, he steps inside to order a sim­ple lat­te, only to be unex­pect­ed­ly con­front­ed by the last per­son he thought he would see—Tabitha. The instant he hears her voice call­ing his name, every­thing around him fades, and he is imme­di­ate­ly pulled back into a past filled with unre­solved emo­tions and rejec­tion. The sound of his name on her lips is enough to trig­ger the cas­cade of painful mem­o­ries, remind­ing him of the last time they were togeth­er and the way she had so abrupt­ly shut him out of her life.

Fac­ing her for the first time since their breakup, Hen­ry can­not help but notice the sub­tle trans­for­ma­tions in Tabitha. Her hair is longer now, flow­ing with a new sense of matu­ri­ty, and her pos­ture has changed—there’s a grace­ful poise to her, almost like that of a dancer who has learned to move with pur­pose and con­fi­dence. He sees this trans­for­ma­tion and feels an over­whelm­ing rush of emo­tions, a mix­ture of admi­ra­tion for her growth and regret for the way things end­ed between them. For a moment, he almost for­gets his inten­tion to escape the past, as he stands frozen, unable to move away despite his desire to flee from the uncom­fort­able sit­u­a­tion. Her smile, the same smile that once warmed his heart, is now different—freely giv­en, yet it car­ries a hint of sad­ness, almost as if it’s been weighed down by the years that have passed since their last encounter. Henry’s mind floods with the mem­o­ries of what once was, of their shared moments that now feel so dis­tant, and he real­izes that this sim­ple smile, once a cher­ished token of affec­tion, now sym­bol­izes the painful chasm that has grown between them.

“I’ve missed you,” Tabitha says soft­ly, her voice filled with sin­cer­i­ty. Her words hit Hen­ry like a wave, and for a brief moment, he feels the tug of the past pulling him back in. He answers her in kind, the weight of the sen­ti­ment clear in his response, but he also knows that these words, though heart­felt, can nev­er tru­ly undo the hurt that lies between them. Their exchange is a snap­shot of what they once shared, but it’s also a reminder of how much has changed. Both of them have moved on in dif­fer­ent ways, yet this unex­pect­ed meet­ing high­lights the unre­solved feel­ings and the emo­tion­al gap that still exists. As they talk, it becomes evi­dent that they both har­bor a mutu­al sense of long­ing for what was lost, but they are also aware that the con­nec­tion they had is no longer as it once was. It’s a moment of painful reflec­tion, where the past and present col­lide, leav­ing both of them feel­ing vul­ner­a­ble and exposed. For Hen­ry, the encounter is a real­iza­tion that while time has passed and they have both evolved, the emo­tion­al residue of their rela­tion­ship remains, lin­ger­ing in the space between them. Despite the hus­tle and bus­tle of New York City and the fast-paced nature of life around them, this brief but intense exchange forces them both to con­front the past and the unre­solved emo­tions they have car­ried with them. The encounter, though brief, becomes a pow­er­ful reminder that some con­nec­tions, no mat­ter how much time has passed, are nev­er tru­ly erased. The chance meet­ing, filled with unspo­ken words and heart­felt con­fes­sions, is a poignant explo­ration of love, loss, and the lin­ger­ing pres­ence of what could have been.