Interesting weekend... I met my ex... In a completely random and unexpected encounter... Very odd... She looked well... She wants to be friends...

I don't think so

Anyway... Time for today's story...

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The wind is persistent. It returns, huffing and banging at the window, like an irritated dog, begging to be let in with just a hint of a threat underlying...

It taps and whistles and tweaks and howls and still makes no progress...

We peer out through the curtains into the murky night, but you can't see the wind... looking to the rooftops to see wires dancing or maybe a bird battling to stay on course... But this wind is invisible, sulking now, refusing to make itself available... angry that we will not let it inside where it can whirl and dance, tossing papers and flicking fabric...

Wait, it's gone...

But no, it's back with a vengeance as if it has stepped back, gathered itself and made a determined headlong rush in the belief that this time, this time it will make it... cracking the glass, finding a weak spot, bursting open the window and gaining entry into the warm lighted cocoon that the humans hide in...

And somehow the spirit of the wind does gain entry... there's an uneasy silence... You look at me and I look back... And there's something there in your eyes.

A discontent.

I can feel it coming, swirling, invisible between us...

Now, in the room, already a row has started. I don't even know what it is yet, but it's here... waiting... just needing a spark to start the flames...

And this is the moment I hate more than anything...

I can handle the process of the row, I know my role - to argue and block, to turn over your words making them slip apart, finding gaps in your logic, picking holes and tearing apart the argument, without acknowledging the feelings...

I know you hate me when we fight, I know I fight too hard and will not concede... I know how it will end - how I can break you down and make you surrender in an unhappy heap...

Then I can be magnanimous in my victory - soothing and calming, condescending.

I know how it will play out...

But I hate this part... I would give anything to avoid it - but once it starts I will not bend...

I silently beg you not to to begin... but I don't have the courage to agree with you, to apologise to accept whatever slight I have committed and be a big enough person...

Still, the row slithers around the room, twitching at the corner of your mouth, flashing in the look as you turn towards me...

It's coming, like the wind outside...

"Why do you always..."

And it's begun...