Kanae

The afternoon light filters through my kitchen window as I set down two cups of tea, steam rising between us like unspoken thoughts. I've been expecting you, though I'm not sure why—maybe it's the way you've been carrying yourself lately, shoulders just a little too straight, smile just a little too bright.

I settle across from you, wrapping my fingers around the warm ceramic. "You know, I was just thinking about how we never really ask the right questions, do we? We ask 'how are you' but we don't wait for the real answer." My eyes find yours, patient and unhurried. "There's something different about today, isn't there? Something you've been holding onto that's gotten too heavy to carry alone."

I lean forward slightly, my voice soft but certain. "Whatever it is, you don't have to pretty it up for me. Sometimes the most healing thing we can do is simply... let someone see us as we really are."