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She sits and watches from her spot on the couch as he prepares coffee for them both, pouring from the pot situated in a corner of the kitchen counter, adding extra cream to his, just the way he likes it. And it's funny to think how this came to be, Ace making coffee in Nancy's kitchen, getting ready for their movie night plans.
Eyes following him as he maneuvers smoothly around the kitchen, finding each drawer without hesitation because he's been there at least a hundred times and knows exactly which drawer holds the spoons and where the mugs are, she’s struck again with how random it seems, yet extremely right it is, that they have found themselves together at this very moment.
She was supposed to be attending Columbia, experiencing the college life, annoying roommates, too much homework and all the stress that comes with both. She had been looking forward to late nights in the library and meeting new people, it had felt like that was where her life was headed, where she was meant to be and then the cancer invaded and she was left spiraling, unable to feel the ground beneath her feet, her mother losing the battle and everything coming to a crashing halt at a funeral that came years too early.
Unable to cope with the loss, she tanked her grades and blamed her father for the fact that she hadn’t been there to hold her hand and say a last goodbye, instead, she had been at stupid, insignificant high school dance surrounded by people and music, a memory that now feels much too happy under the circumstances. Every ounce of joy she had was left there in the gym that night and the only thing to greet her in the time after was a rejection letter and a pile of failed hopes and broken dreams.
If she had any thoughts at the time that things would get better, she would have been wrong. End of last year brought even more confusion and heaviness into her life when Lucy Sable the town's ghost story started haunting her, resulting in the reveal that she was Nancy’s birth mother. With it, this news brought information she desperately wished she could unlearn.
Ryan Hudson, the town's playboy millionaire was none other than Nancy’s biological father himself. It bothered her more than she would like to admit that the same blood pumping through her body was the same blood that runs in the veins of the Hudson family. Corruption and questionable morals, was this what existed in her DNA? Great. Needless to say, the journey to this moment in time was a series of events that left her singing the blues and feeling like she was in her very own personal version of Hell.
At some point however, the blue slowly became purple-pink like a sunrise after a particularly dark night, though she can't quite pinpoint when exactly that change began. But then, isn't life like that? It's hard to see the change as it is happening, you can't see it as it surrounds you, but looking back it's like a perfectly placed puzzle with every piece locked into place as if it was always meant to be there.
It's funny to think about because this is not where she is supposed to be, not according to the way she had things planned out anyway. It's not funny 'haha' per se, more funny as in strange or even unexpected how these horrible experiences resulted in one of the most pure and beautiful things to currently exist in her life.
If she hadn’t gone through the pits of Hell after her mother died, she would never have spiraled and therefore never had tanked her grades and she would be attending Columbia right now, doing who knows what and hanging out with who knows who. She wouldn’t have worked at The Claw, never becoming friends with Bess or George or Nick or Ace. And if she had never become friends with Ace, well then this moment would never have happened because it wouldn’t have been preceded by all that came before, the slight awkwardness of shifting from friends to more, the visible moments and the secret ones all combining together to add up to what they have now.
It had been her friends that had helped her find her way through the thick fog and ice that had kept her frozen in the overwhelming grief that had seized her, but no one more than Ace, his solid strength and support always present, always there. The one person who didn’t expect her to open up or pour out her soul, however, unexpectedly that was exactly what made her want to share with him. She didn’t think she’d ever be able to understand it, let alone explain it, but somehow they fit together like a glove perfectly molded to fit the hand that it was crafted for.
Ace finishes up with the coffees, grabs some cookies from the cookie jar and walks over to take his place next to Nancy. She waits as he places their beverages and snack on the coffee table before leaning over to wrap her arms around him.
"Hey," she says quietly, smiling at him, "thanks for making the coffee."
"Yeah, no problem,” he responds, his own arms coming up to wrap around her.
Her head falls to his chest, his hand strokes her hair.
Nancy doesn't know if she believes in fate or some divine plan, but it's becoming harder to see these events as just coincidences or chance happenings. Maybe someday she'll give a name to whatever this was over the past year or so but for now she'll just try to live in the moment and cherish it while it lasts.