The Quest For Answers

The coffee shop smelled like home, with the mix of roasted beans and vanilla cream. But today, the scent of coffee was not enough to drown out the tension in the air. Cecelia sat at a corner table with her fingers circling the rim of her cup and her eyes fixed on the window.
It was as though the world had slipped into another time; so distant and blurry, like the moment before an eclipse.

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"How long are you going to keep staring at the window?" a voice interrupted her thoughts.
Ethan sat on the seat across her, his long sleeve brushing the table. Cecelia perceived his smell barely looking at him; he smelled like the outdoors, like something wild. It felt pleasant.

"Just a few more minutes," she murmured.

"Right," he said, grinning, though his eyes were analyzing her face. He knew her too well. "Are you still thinking about that night?"

The question hung in the air, pulling her back to that moment; the night the sky split in two. It felt like ages ago, even though only months had passed.
It was a meteor shower, a rare eclipse, and just a single conversation that had really left both of them hanging between the world they knew and the one they didn't.

Cecilia sighed. “Three words. Wonder, eclipse, coffee,” she muttered, glancing at the clock behind the counter.

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“Those are the three words you would use to describe that night?” Ethan asked, taking a sip of his coffee as if the conversation was just a casual chat.

“No," she replied quickly, shaking her head. "Those are the three words I’ve been thinking about. Since then, since... everything changed."

Ethan paused, his fingers tapping on his cup. "I never thought you would be the type to get stuck on something like that. Thought you were a 'move-on' kind of person."

“I was.” She met his gaze. “But then everything has changed.”

Ethan’s eyes softened. He had always been able to see the things others missed; the changes in people’s voice tone, the places they didn't want to go. But even he didn’t seem to understand how Cecilia had gotten so lost.

---

Five Months earlier , Cecilia had been working late at the museum, filing ancient artifacts, when she saw Ethan standing by the door, looking out at the night sky. The two of them had been friends for years, but that night, something was different about him. He wasn’t the same easy-going guy who would show up at her apartment, late with a pizza and stories of his latest adventure. There was an urgency in his eyes, something she had never seen before.

"It's happening," he had said, his voice low.

Cecilia had walked up to him, looking up, she saw the moon casting a strange shadow over the city. The stars above had begun to shine in a strange way, and in the distance, she could see the beginning of an eclipse; a very rare event that nobody had foretold.

She didn’t know what to say, so she just watched, her breath caught in her throat.

And then, as the sky turned dark, Ethan had whispered these three words in her ear that echoed in her mind ever since: "Wonder, eclipse, coffee."

“What does that mean?” Cecilia had asked, confused by his tone.

Ethan had turned to her, his face serious for the first time in years. "It’s the key to everything, Cecilia. You just have to be calm and listen”

That moment had ended as quickly as it began, and Ethan was gone, leaving her with only those words.

---

Now, in the coffee shop, Cecilia rubbed her temples, frustrated. She had spent months trying to understand what Ethan had meant by those three words.

“Wonder,” she muttered. "Wonder. What was so wondrous about that night?"

“Maybe it wasn’t the night,” Ethan offered. “Maybe it’s you, Cecilia. Maybe the wonder is in you.”

She looked up, meeting his eyes, but she could see he wasn’t really serious. He was deviating from the question ,as he often did. She shook her head. "I don't get it. I’ve tried everything. I’ve read every book about eclipses, about symbolism, about wonder. I’ve gone over every detail. And yet... all I see is nothing, maybe blurry but does that count for something?"

Ethan leaned forward with intense expression. "Maybe you’re looking at it wrong. You’re trying to make sense of something that’s not meant to be understood. Some things are meant to remain mysteries."

"That's not enough," she snapped, her frustration rising. "I need more than that. I need answers."

Ethan’s eyes softened, and for a moment, Cecilia could see the old him; the one who had always been her anchor, the one who had pulled her back from the edge time and time again. But now, it felt like he couldn’t offer her anything solid, anything real.

"You won’t find what you’re looking for here, Cecilia," he said quietly.

She exhaled sharply, standing up. “You’re right. Maybe I won’t.”

But just as she turned to leave, Ethan called out. “Cecilia, wait.”

She stopped with her hand on the door, but she didn’t turn around. “What?”

He stood up and walked over to her “The answer is in the coffee.”

She blinked, confused. "What do you mean?"

He gave her a crooked smile. "You’ve been searching for meaning in the wrong place. Sometimes, the answers come when you stop trying to force them out. Sit down and enjoy the coffee. The rest will follow."

Cecilia stared at him for a long moment and for a moment, she felt the ease in her chest. She thought about what he had said about how life sometimes felt like it was a riddle, unsolvable, no matter how hard you tried to decode it. Maybe, it wasn’t the answers she needed after all.

With a small, reluctant smile, she lowered herself back into her seat.
Three words:
Wonder, eclipse, coffee.

Maybe they weren’t meant to be solved.

Maybe they were just meant to be lived.

And for the first time in five months, Cecilia felt the weight lifted.