The Red String

Chapter 6

Present...

Divya

The night with the girls ended pretty late, but Aayisha had to leave earlier than Honey because of her meeting the next morning. Honey stayed around 30 minutes longer to help me clean up and after that, she was gone too. I'm not sure how late it was when I went to sleep, but I know it was late enough for me to not get as much rest as I needed. I get to my cubicle and take my set my bag and coffee down before pulling out my chair to take my seat, but the sound of a familiar voice startled me.

"Good morning," he greets over the divider, a slight smile on his face. Right, Arjun. I almost forgot.

"Hey, good morning." I offered him the same smile and pulled my laptop out of my bag, opening it and logging in.

"How was your day yesterday?" He asked. "Busy?"

"A little. You remember Aayisha?"

"Vaguely, yes."

"She flew in from New York yesterday so we had a girls night. Ended pretty late. How about you, what were you doing?" Not looking at him definitely made small talk a little easier, but I couldn't not look at him forever. I diverted my eyes from my screen to him and found that he didn't break eye contact at all. Very unlike him if I'm going off of who he was in college.

"That's really cool. I didn't do anything just chilled in with my roommate. We watched a movie, had dinner, and called it a day."

"Ohh, cool. I live alone so having the girls over last night was nice."

"Yeah, I bet. Any plans later today after work?"

I could feel the conversation dying and his desperate attempts to keep it alive. "No, not really, I might just catch up on some work. Why?"

"Nothing much, just wondered if you'd maybe like to have some coffee after work?" He was hesitant to ask, his eyes full of expectancy for me to say yes. I didn't have anything going on this evening anyway and I'm all caught up on work. In fact, I'm ahead of my schedule. It's been a bit since I've had something interesting happen in my life anyway, so why not? Can't protect your peace too long.

"Sounds good. Where?"

"Times Cafe?"

"Alright, see you there." I get up and gather my belongings, making sure I got everything. "I have a meeting to attend right now, but I'll see you later." I offered him a smile and he returned it before waving to me and I left. Once I entered the elevator, I called Aayisha.

"Guess what." I didn't have the time for hellos.

"What?"

"He invited me for coffee and I said yes. What do you think? What if he makes a move or something? What should I do? Do friends go out for coffee?" The elevator rose to the 10th floor as I bombarded her with my questions.

"I don't think he's gonna be making a move on the first meet. But what do I know? Mentally, I'm a slut, physically, I'm scared of intimacy, and spiritually, I despise men."

"Right. Whatever I don't think he'll make a move either. What's there to make a move for anyway? He barely knows who I am now." The elevator opens and I walk down the halls to the conference room.

"Yeah, exactly. You'll be fine. Let me know how it goes. I've gotta go now my meeting's starting, but call me when you're done with your little date," she teased.

"It's not a date," I grumbled. "I'll call you later, though, bye."

"Bye!" She ended the call and I shoved my phone into my locked before letting out a breath and reading the door numbers looking for 1010. I walked in once I found it and I was the second person to show up. I didn't really know the other person in the room, so I simply offered her a smile and sat in my seat in silence. As the crowed built itself up with more people showing up, I still sat there thinking until the meeting commenced.

I wish I could see the future.