Petals floated down into the basket, a mix of yellow and blue that often helped her feel calm and peaceful. She plucked the copious tiny flowers from their stems, slowly creating a blend that came together organically. The sun was out, warming her bare arms and she felt a soft breeze toy with her dark silver-streaked hair.

A buzz drew her attention and Eela moved from her patio into the penthouse, setting the basket of edible flowers on the dining table. The building comm drew her to the foyer. “Yes?” she said and the disembodied voice of Ensign Haskins downstairs in the lobby came through. “Ma’am, there’s a visitor here for you, but he’s not on any list for today?”

“Oh?” she said. Eela couldn’t think of anyone whom security wouldn’t immediately know and inform her about by saying, ‘So-and-so is here to see you.’ Haskins sounded hesitant.

“Yes, a Cory Fletcher?”

She froze, frowning. What the hell was he doing here? Their advance warning system for calls and interactions was still in place, so she didn’t understand what was going on. “Tell him to wait there. I’ll come down.”

Slipping on some flats onto her barefeet, she stepped out the door and nodded to the security on duty. Eela emerged out of the lift a minute later and moved past the other lifts and into the lobby.

Cory stood there, dressed as he often was in casual slacks and an untucked button-down shirt. There were tiny streaks of silver in his hair that she didn’t recall him having the last time she had seen him on a screen.

As she approached, he smiled warmly at her and Eela could feel the happiness her presence induced. It was strange. Surreal. It was actually hard to remember the last time she had felt that from him. At the hospital after she had woken up from the coma? Had it been that long? She nodded to Haskins and stopped a good metre from her ex-husband, not trusting this unexpected situation. ”Cory? What are you doing here?”

Cory took in the high, open necked top that hugged her upper body and the loose pants that flowed about her as she moved. “El, you look great,” he said sincerely. “Can we talk? In private?”

Confusion flooded her body, touching her face. “I don’t understand. You shouldn’t be here. It’s not appropriate.”

“I know. But I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately since the divorce and there are realizations I’ve had. I could have called, I know, but it felt best to say them in person.”

She too had been having realizations, but they certainly didn’t make her happy or want to see him. Doubt waged war and she couldn’t hide it from him of all people.

“Ten minutes. Thats all I’m asking. If you don’t want to keep talking after that, I’ll go and let you be. I just… I think we need to have this conversation, El. For both our sakes.”

The call they had had when the divorce decree came through had felt like a proper goodbye, a nicer endnote than it might otherwise have been. What more could there possibly be to say?

“Please, El?”

She blew out a breath and nodded. “Alright, ten minutes,” she said in a small voice before exchanging a glance with the ensign. Haskins rose and gestured for Cory to approach and went through the standard security check and registration. She was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt but she wasn’t going to circumvent procedures for him.

A silent ride up the lift and Eela kept to one side of the lift, the space feeling necessary. When they stepped out, she nodded to the two guards at her door again.

Cory looked surprised. “You have a lot of security.”

Eela gave him a sideways glance as she unlocked her door. “It is necessary and comes with the job.”

She led him inside and Cory took in the space with a wide smile. “Wow, this is definitely you, El.”

Saying nothing more just yet, she kicked off her shoes and moved to the living room. Eela sat on one couch, gesturing to him to sit on the other. Cory sat on the edge, leaning forward and meeting her gaze. Silence sat between them and the warmth emanating from him actually annoyed the hell out of her. “You said you had things to say. By all means say what you have to.” She wished she sounded less impatient but she didn’t understand why he was here.

“I don’t know exactly what it was. Maybe it was the decree, maybe it was our chat after where it felt more like us, you know?” Eela nodded warily, knowing she had made the same observation. “I guess I’ve been looking back at how things unfolded and I realized that maybe we needed the divorce to just reset things. Because… I miss you El. More than I thought I could.”

Eela blinked. “You miss me?” She shook her head. “I was right there, Cory! For years after the accident. And you pushed me away time and time again. So I went on assignment more, and then you got more frustrated. What was I supposed to do? I couldn’t win.”

“I know, I made it so hard for you, and I’m truly sorry for that,” he said. Cory almost moved out of his seat to sit next to her but he didn’t want to ruin the chance for conversation.

[to be continued…]

~Eela & Cory