Zoa flinches when her phone rings for the umpteenth time in the past hour, tapping the steering wheel nervously as she tries to decide whether she should answer it. So far, all of their conversations have been increasingly heated so she really doesn’t want to pick up if she has a choice.
The ringing ends a moment later but before she could relax or breathe, it starts again and the name she usually loves seeing flashing across her phone screen—she even added a pink ribbon emoji to it—now makes her extremely uneasy.
It’s finally here. The climax of our first fight. Here we go then.
She sighs and taps the green button on the screen.
“Please tell me that you’re seconds away,” Jihan's voice is cold and obviously unhappy.
“Um… no. I’m still stuck in traffic.”
“ETA?”
“Err… I don’t know. Twenty, thirty minutes?”
“…”
“I’m sorry, Jihan,” she says meekly. “Please wait for me?”
“I’ve been waiting for an hour!”
The red haired flinches again and quickly places the phone in its holder, switching the call to speaker to save her ear.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know that traffic would be this bad,” she says, inching her car forward a bit when the vehicle in front of her starts to move.
“Didn’t I tell you to just take the subway? Why did you have to take your car? You would’ve been here by now if you had listened to me.”
“But we’re going shopping! It would be much easier and better to put the stuff in my car instead of carrying them inside a packed subway and walking home.”
“I’m not buying a TV or a fridge. Between the two of us, we can easily hold the bags and take the subway,” argues Jihan.
“I only wanted to make sure you’re comfortable.”
“There is nothing comfortable about waiting alone in a crowded coffee shop for over an hour with everyone eyeing your table and yourself.”
Zoa lets out another sigh. “I’m sorry.” The cars start to move again and she suddenly has an idea. “If traffic doesn’t improve in the next fifteen minutes, I’ll park my car here and take the subway so can you please wait another twenty minutes?”
“You realize that the shops are gonna close soon, right?”
“Yes but we still have time,” says Zoa as she checks her watch. “An hour and a half should be enough, right?”
She can hear Jihan sighing on the other end.
“You know what, forget it. I can’t sit here any longer. I need to go to the toilet and then get my shopping done. So you do whatever you want to do. You can even turn around and go home. I’m fine with it,” Jihan says curtly.
“But Jihan-…”
The call ends before Zoa could finish her sentence and she groans, leaning back in her seat. “Damn it,” she curses under her breath. I shouldn’t have let that client extend the meeting like that. I would’ve made it on time if it weren’t for her and this crazy traffic.
She tries to call Jihan back but the woman won’t pick up even after multiple attempts.
Five minutes later, just as the red haired decides to park her car and catch the subway, the jam slowly yet miraculously starts to dissolve. Cars begin to move and Zoa tries her best to maneuver quickly yet safely through traffic to get to Jihan as fast as possible.
