Redemption

Chapter I

How many days has it gone by? I forgot. Safiye couldn't sleep the night prior to her first semester in college. A thousand? Not yet. Maybe nine hundred? How many days until the last day of May? How many days had it gone by? She lazily took off the blanket as she rose from the bed, and the tip of her feet reached the cold flor. the pain that haunted her awake reached up to her dreams, an unnecessary guilt that has haunted her for two year. The alarm went off with the happiest song that has ever been written and Safiye turned it off with one hand while the other wiped a single tear, taking a deep breath as she got ready for the tedious routine. Shawored, got dressed in black yoga pants, a gray knit sweater, a light gray scarf, and a black coat, and after forcing herself to eat she walked out of her lonely house to go to college and continue with her first semester. She made it a coffee shop that was a few feet away from her school, and ordered her usual ginger and lemon tea with no sugar. She sat at one of the high tables with her usual little jump that didn't go unnoticed by the eyes of the predator, just like it didn't go unnoticed the amount of time she had to brush her hair away for her face, as she leaned down to read from her book, and the moment she softly smiled with a joke on the book. Unknown to her, her mere appearance and every action triggered in him an animalistic desire that caused him to shift in his seat as he had to fight to contain himself.

Safiye looked up and scanned around the cafe, on the far right corner her eyes met his, she was immediately impressed at the features of the man, and at the great coincidence of how a shadow perfectly divided his face keeping half of his face in the darkness and the other half on the light. The right side of his face reflected perfectly the rays of the sun, his eye looking golden brown and his cheek looking light pink, while the left eye was deep black and his skin dead white looking dull. She made the mistake of gently smiling at him for no other reason than a random 'hello,' to which he answered slightly nodding his head while raising his coffee in the air before taking a sip. She took from her bag a small notebook where she began to write a little speech she was planning to give on an upcoming important date, through the whole time she fell the eyes of the man over her and she sometimes looked at his direction with a smile. For her it was nothing more than innocent flirting, to him it was his way of work. It was nice for her for a 'handsome gentleman' to look at her the way he did, to him it was nice how she was cooperating.

He stood from the table and placed his jacket on and grabbed his messenger bag and approached Safiye with a coquet smile and attitude. She closed the notebook and placed it on her bag and told herself repeatedly to not be nervous, "Excuse my sudden approach, I have been looking at you for a while, and believe me when I say you are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. If you feel uncomfortable with my comment or my approach, inform me and I will leave you alone and you'll never see me again, but I had to talk to you even it was the last time" He said with a soft voice almost getting her lost in a trance, once he concluded she idiotically erupted in a smile and chuckled looking away from him, "It was so sophisticated it can't be call a pick up line. It's fine, you may sit if you want" Safiye said, moving her bag away, signaling the seat next to her with her hand.

He sat and placed the hot coffee next to her tea and extended his hand to shake hers "Renato" He simply said, "Safiye" She said with red cheeks "Really?" He asked, raising an eyebrow causing her to oddly look at him but still smiling, "Yeah..." She chuckled one more time, "Did you know your name belonged to the Sultana Safiye?" He said, "I didn't, that's pretty cool though" She said, "It also means purity for the culture of Turkey" He added, "How do you know all that?" She asked, intrigued by his knowledge. He took a sip of his coffee before answering, "I love to know a little bit of everything, so I educate myself in many things." Nothing that he said was to be trusted, since he would either be lying or manipulating the truth to acquire something in his favor. It was true that Safiye meant purity, just like it was true that he was constantly learning, but he did it to have an upper hand with others since he was aware that people guided themselves with meaningless standards and stereotypes, he was aware that one rule in the minds of the people is; if a person is educated and has a good vocabulary he more than likely is a good person, as if the profession and level of education defined a person as good or evil.