The Wrong Number

The souvenir

Aurora's POV

"How are you?" 

"Why are you here?" I asked without answering him.

"Do you have time? I want to talk to you."

"Sorry, my shift is not over. I ca..."

"Yes, she has time." My partner said, cutting me in mid sentence. She nudged me towards the counter exit.

"I do not..." I hissed.

"Yes, you have. Now go go go." She whispered back.

I was forced out of my place. I had no choice but to follow him to a table.

We sat there quietly. I was waiting for him to say anything. 

It is surreal for me to believe that he is sitting in front of me. I only dreamed about it, over and over again. When I was still a teenager, I always keep searching for him, but after my parents' death I got busy with my siblings. But he still lingered in a corner of my mind. The last meeting with him in that graveyard remained engraved in my head. It gave me the strength to keep going. Even with that man being in my life, I never forgot about this guy, after all he is my first love. And now he is sitting in front of me.

My hands were shaking from nervousness. He put his hand in his bag and put out a piece of paper and put it on the table in front of me.

I kept on looking at it. Then I looked at him. 

What is this? Is it a bill or something? Should I be scared of it?

"Come on, open it." He insisted.

"What is this?" I asked as I reached out for it. 

"Open it and you'll find out."

I took it and slowly opened it. I was not looking at the paper, but at his expression, trying to guess if it is something bad or good.

But he kept his face straight and eyes on the paper. 

I took a deep breath and looked at the paper. It was an old paper, but in very good condition. It was a drawing. Drawing of a girl and a boy. I remembered it. 

My mind was not working at all. I just looked up and searched for his eyes. He was looking into my eyes. His face got blurred for a second, I blinked to get a clear view, but something dropped on my cheeks, something wet. 

He got up from his chair and bend over the table to reach out to me. He ran his thumb over my cheeks one by one and then sat again. The corners of his eyes were a little wet too.

"I am sorry. I was in too much shock to reply to you the other day. It was not that I didn't remember you, I was just... I just don't... It was just too much to take in. I got scared that you, that you may get disappointed in me. I don't know, really, why I didn't tell you that moment. I wan..."

"Breathe... I get it. I felt the same. I never really thought that we will meet one day. And after realizing that you are the one I have been talking to, it was difficult to take in for me too. So it's okay, I understand. It's good that you remembered me."

Then again, I looked at the drawing in my hand and instantly my eyes filled with fresh tears. 

"I almost forgot about this. You still kept it?"

"Why would I not? It was given by you after all."

"Then why did you never meet me again? I... I was waiting for you." I said.

I still am. 

"We moved here." He said. That's what I thought. I just nodded. "It was so sudden and so much was going on in my family that I didn't get the chance to meet you before going." He continued. 

"Oh! I guessed that much. So how is your family now?" I asked out of courtesy.

"Well, you see, now I don't have any. We moved because my dad... He..."

"Please, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to." I said immediately. I felt clearly that he was not comfortable in telling me.

"No, it's nothing, but I don't want to spoil our time while talking unimportant things."

"Nothing related to you could be unimportant to me, but you don't l have to tell me anything."

"You... You have grown beautifully." He said looking deep into my eyes. "I have...something to ask?" He said.

"What?"

"Was it you? The girl in the rain?" He asked.

Girl in the rain? I frowned at that.

Which girl he is talking about? Does she mean something important to him?

"What are you asking?" I asked out of clue.

"Okay, have you ever met someone and told them to not commit suicide? On a bridge, in the rain?" He asked again. But this time understood him, clearly.

"How? How do know? You can't be that man too? How could be there so many co-incidents with us?" I couldn't believe that.

"So that was really you?" He looked down. "I don't believe it myself. What is it that God wants us to do with all this?" He looked gloomy.

But why? Is he not happy that we have been helping each other without even knowing about who it is?

My heart sank. I didn't say anything for a long time. Nor did I look up at him. I was just staring at the drawing I made for him. It was us in the drawing. But maybe there is no us here, never were. 

My heart started aching. Suddenly my face was lifted up. He made me look at him. He was frowning.

Why is he frowning now?

"Why are you making that face?"

"What face?"

"Like you are upset about something. Is it something I said or did?" He asked.

I didn't know what to tell him. So I stayed quiet.

"So much time has passed since we met for the first time." He said. 

Suddenly something struck to my mind.

"Why were you on that bridge? Were you really planning to jump? What if I wouldn't have stopped you?" I asked. That didn't cross my head that he was on that bridge to commit suicide.

"I was not planning to suicide that night. I was just devastated that day and didn't realize that I was not a bridge." He replied smilingly.

"How could you be so irresponsible? It was raining that night what if you would have slipped and fallen from that bridge? What was so wrong that happened that day?" I asked furiously.

"I caught my girlfriend cheating on me that day. I was going to propose to her that day. We dated for three years." He said without any expression.

I didn't know how to react to it. He must be very hurt. I am still blaming myself for what that man did to my sister and I know that I will always curse myself for that. I can understand him.

We stay seated a little more. There was nothing else coming to my mind. He was also not talking.

After a while, his phone rang. He excused himself to attend the call, it was from his work. He came back in a minute.

"I'll have to go now." He said.

"Okay, I will... We can..." I didn't know what to say.

"I'll call you after I will get free from my office. Bye." With that, he left.

Hello, dears. Hope you liked it. 

See you guys tomorrow with another update.