Where there is wind, the trees sway.

Running late

Akansha

I yawned. Suresh said that he'd wanted to talk. I should have been confused, but I found a small part of me longing for the feel of something I have long tried to forget. We had had a clean break-up, no hard feelings. I didn't know about him, but I had missed him terribly.

Suresh was one of those guys who knew that they were simply amazing. He was smart but that didn't mean that he wasn't athletic. Such talents would have intimidated anyone, and so was I when I first met him. He was simple but yet so wonderful. He was great at everything he did and that drove some people crazy. I had missed him a lot when he'd left. Some of the happiest moments in my life had been those with him. And when he left, I drowned myself in work so I didn't have to keep thinking of him all the time. I yawned again.

I had left without a goodbye. I wish I'd told Abir instead of just walking away. I should call him. I thought. Just when I was about to pick up my phone, a message pinged, lighting the screen. The screen showed 9:30. It was Abir.

'is everything all right?', he asked.

'Yeah, thanks'

'Are you home?'

'Yeah, I reached. You?'

'Yeah me too.'

'I enjoyed our date, thank you.'

' So you want to meet sometime again?'

'Sure' I typed. And sometime after that, I fell asleep.

I woke up the next morning completely relaxed and rested. I looked at the mirror, I looked fresh. I noticed the clock showing 5:25. 'That's not right.', I thought.

Confused I turned to the clock, opposite from the mirror.

"Shit! It's 7:35!"

I rushed inside the bathroom and ran out of the house twenty minutes later. I had missed my meditation, and a half an hour of morning coffee while reading the newspaper. I had to be there at eight and it was a half-hour drive to the company.

Thankfully, the traffic was not as heavy as usual and I could get there in 20 minutes. On reaching, I quickly parked my car and after giving the keys to the valet parker, I caught the elevator and went right up to the floor which had my office. I sat down with a huff and relaxed into my seat and at that very moment the receptionist barged in.

"Thought that you were going to take the day off. This is the first time you are late.", she said.

'Great, I guess I'm not gonna get away with this. But then, is this the first time I'm late?' I suddenly realized what a monotonous life I had been living until then. It was almost robotic. The only thing that I had done a little off the routine was the date I had had the day before. I had to loosen up a bit. I couldn't live in such a manner anyway. I decided to finish the day with the utmost concentration and order a pizza the moment I was done with my work. I determined to binge-watch all the seasons of Money Heist.

===

I got up from my seat and stretched; another productive day at work. I walked down to the parking lot. Someone was standing next to my car. As I went closer, he turned and said, "Sweet ride you got there."

"Suresh? What are you doing here?"

"I know where you work remember?"

"Yeah, it makes you sound like a stalker."

"Yeah, I guess. Well, see, I'm here 'cause, I wanted to come back alright?"

"What do you mean? We broke up and I am pretty sure that was it." But then, it wasn't.

"No, you don't understand babe,..."

"No, you don't understand and don't 'babe' me. Do you have any idea how I felt? Never mind... I don't think you should. Why don't you go back to your perfect job?"

'Whoa, that felt kind of good', I thought.

I walked to my car, got in and was about to close the door when he said, "I missed you too"

I stopped. I didn't want to, but I couldn't walk away. " I missed you every single day, and the long-distance thing wasn't working. We were both frustrated, but now I'm here.", he said.

Did he seriously think I was going to buy that? Nope.

"Dude, cut the shit,"

He laughed.

"Good to know that you haven't changed."

"Good to know you haven't either", I replied.

"I'm sorry. Will you give me just one more chance and go out with me?", he said. I knew that his apology was true. Though that didn't make me feel better (maybe just a little) I couldn't let him go either. I knew I was making the same mistakes, but then, I didn't care.

"I'll think about it.", I said as I drove away.

I had abandoned all my plans and was reading the remaining chapters of 'Wuthering Heights' when I realized what I had missed.

'Abir!'

I didn't know what I was going to tell him. Of course, I should tell him the truth. I took out my phone the moment I reached home. I had dozed off before I could send the 'Sure' and it had been saved as a draft. I didn't know if I should thank my stars or feel bad.

I quickly typed a message to Abir and hit send.