Part - I
December 5, 2020
It had been months now, no wonder it took so much of time for me to finally come to this café and have my favourite coffee. It feels nostalgic coming here just like those days. I couldn't really recognize the people behind the counter, when I reached to give my order. As soon as I got my coffee, my eyes automatically scanned for the familiar spot like it had been programmed to do the job.
Though the café looked new with few alternations done in interior, I could easily recognize our table, luckily that remained the same and it was unoccupied. Despite the fact it would be just me sitting alone, I was still happy, at least I would be getting a chance to take a seat there. Back then I used to hang out with my- ... him on most of the weekends and this café was a special place where we would come routinely more or less every weekend and occasionally our friends gang would join us. And when I was about to move to that table, suddenly I heard someone calling my name "Win?" I turned towards the person to my right entering in the counter and that was P'Podd the owner of this café, who was also my senior from college. Then we had a small talk as he inquired his once regular customer, whom disappeared straight away for months. Thank heavens, P'Podd and me were not close enough to share my personal stuffs.
Just as I turned around with my usual coffee waving off to P'Podd, I almost bumped into the guy standing behind me. Immediately I whispered a "Sorry" and checked if I had spilt on the floor or strained the coffee on the person, thankfully neither of it had happened, sighing I relaxed. Muttering an apology again I lifted my head to face the guy, our eyes met, the guy was ... Team and I surely didn't expect to meet him here at least not now.
"Long time no see", his ever sweet voice distracted me from staring at his face. "Hi", he spoke again, "uh, um...", I blinked unable to utter any other word. Was it real? No, I must be imagining, he can't be here right? Urgh... had my mind started playing tricks again, no.
He looked younger and still handsome like he was during those days with the same taste on fashion, except for his smooth locks of hair dyed in dark brown. I still remember how soft it felt in between my long fingers whenever I played with it. His face beamed as he smiled and trying not to grimace, I pulled off a smile reciprocating his. But soon I interpreted that my attempt on smiling had failed miserably when something near to hurt flickered for a second in his eyes, which was the last thing I saw on those innocent deep brown eyes on that day. Oh god, how much I missed him.
"I said hi", he repeated. No shit, shit it's real. I know the world was too small and living in the same city, possibly we could've seen each other anywhere anytime like some coincidence. And it's really surprising it happened now, leading me to wonder how we didn't meet early.
"Yeah, hey", I replied smiling sheepishly and cursed silently in my mind for embarrassing myself. 'Dammit what should I do now, this is going to be hard' I thought. "Oh, you've got your favourite coffee", he said seeing my hands that were holding the coffee. "Yup", I smiled. 'He still remembered it' I spoke in the air, he didn't notice me saying those words as he turned around gesturing me to wait "Just a minute", before he reached to give his order. My heart thumped of sheer joy as I felt like a happy kid whose longing wish was granted when he nearly lost all his hope in it.
I was all smiling solely focused on him and slowly slipping away from the present my mind drifted back to the memories I had been holding on like a secret treasure that no one could ever have. But gradually things registered in my mind. It was overwhelming, now I couldn't figure out the feeling that was dominant in me at this moment, the extreme pain prickling in my heart because we're not together or the happiness because I had finally met him and he still remembered my favourite. Having spent years with him, I knew he would never forget anything related to me even if it's something trivial.
