279 Akira happened !!!
[A month later]
Akira was traveling to the UK as she had an important meeting with a client at the London Heathrow Airport. After completing the procedures, she came near the luggage belt area to get her bag. She was waiting for her bag to come, but then suddenly her eyes drifted towards a Starbucks shop.
Gazing the Starbucks shop all blank at the airports had become a ritual for her. A desperate attempt at trying her luck, for she always hoped against hope that she would be able to meet him again. But alas, all her hopes always stayed as hope and today, was no different.
Picking up her bag from the belt she marched towards the Starbucks store all disappointed. Even though she knew that it was lame of her to expect him to pop up again in front of the store with a cup of coffee in his hand, she just liked to imagine that happening in her head. Somehow that gave her strange happiness.
Looking at the store all lost, she walked ahead, but then she stumbled and bumped against someone.
The cup of coffee that he had in his hand spilled all over.
Just like the first time.
"Jesus Christ",
The moment she heard the voice she looked up and saw his face. That same angelic face which had left her a year and a half back. The same face that had promised to stay next to her, till death did them apart.
Dropping everything that was in her hand, she held his face in her hand, unable to believe that the miracle had finally happened. Tears flooded her eyes and all that she could utter was,
"I knew you would come back".
Saying that she raised herself on her toes and kissed him. The moment her lips touched his, it was instant magic. She closed her eyes and melted in his arms, all hungry for him, deprived of his touch, his taste. Her hands moved up and in no time her fingers were running through his hair.
She wanted to dig deeper, trying to quench her thirst, the needs of her parched soul, but before she could venture any further, she found him retracting.
"Whoa, whoa".
"I guess you have mistaken me for someone else".
Saying that he distanced himself first and then lifted the coffee cup which was lying on the floor after being deprived of its contents which lied all scattered and splattered on the ground.
"What are you saying? It's me?", Akira said with her throat almost choking up.
"It's me. The love of your life, your fiance", she said and stretched her hand showing the ring.
He stared at the ring for quite some time and then looked at her face. Everything about her was a bit familiar. The way she smelled, the way she ran her fingers through his hair, the way her lips tasted even in that small period of contact. But above all that ring, he clearly remembered that ring. That ring was his mother's or at least it looked like one.
Akira came closer, trying to touch his shoulder, but he took a step back and said.
"Miss please, I am a married man here. My wife will butcher me if you keep doing things like this".
Saying that he started removing the jacket that he was wearing and took out his phone. There was a picture of another girl on his phone main screen and showing her that, he said,
"See, that's my pretty wife, who is sitting right there, waiting for the coffee that I was supposed to get for her", he said, pointing at a woman, waiting a couple of meters away from them.
"You are joking right. It's all your plan to mess with my head right. Did you plan all this to surprise me? I know for sure. Tell me all this is a lie. I know you".
The more he heard her voice, the more his heart sank, deeper and darker into an endless abyss of nothing but dried up hope.
Before she could say anything to convince him, before he could tell anything to push her away, Oshana came close to Raymond and asked,
"What took you so long?"
He turned and looked at her all lovingly and said,
"Ah, nothing just a minor accident. I am sorry, all your coffee is spilled now".
"It's ok", she said and looked all lovingly at him.
Unable to believe that fate could have been so cruel with her, her steps retracted. How could someone look like him and feel like him? It was hard for her to believe that the man she touched just now wasn't hers, to begin with.
All ashamed she apologized and fled the place, unable to believe that her miseries made her do something like this.
As soon as she left, he retracted his hand that was curled around her waist and he immediately kneeled down all exasperated.
"What happened Raymond?", Oshana asked.
"Akira happened !!!"
Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om