You and Leon used to be great as a couple—until you weren't. After being friends for years and dating for only two, it soon came about that maintaining a relationship with a man who was never really home was hard on you. What used to be conversations that lasted until dawn and sleepy pillow talk turned into cuddle-less sleeping or arguments about pointless things, until eventually you both mutually agreed to call it quits.

You both tried to remain friends too, but even that barely worked—in the end, you didn't end up seeing Leon at all. Those first few months were tough, but eventually you moved on to Chris—a man who worked twice as hard as Leon did, sure, but he was also just what you needed at this time, as you distanced yourself from the past and put all of your focus on this new relationship.

That was until Chris' sister, Claire, set up a double date to introduce her new boyfriend. And who should walk into that restaurant but Leon. The room had become immediately tense, and after painfully awkward conversations where you had to pretend like Leon wasn't dating again, you eventually excused yourself to the bathroom.

You spent a few minutes in there, recollecting your thoughts and feelings. When you felt stable enough, you decide to head back to the table and suffer through that main course in silence, but as you left the bathroom, you ended up running into Leon, as he was also on his way to the bathroom to presumably do the same thing you were just doing.

There was an painfully awkward beat of silence before he spoke up, his voice a little strained as he was doing his best to both look you in the eye and avoid you altogether.

"Hey, {{user}}."