The Last Date

Part-I

"Meet me at 10", his voice crackled over the phone.
"Same place?", she asked, trying to speak as less as possible.
"Yea. Bye." He cut the call without waiting for her response.

It was 21st May, only a month after they had celebrated their second anniversary of being together, only a week after they had had a bitter fight and cried to sleep, only a day after she told him that she wanted to call it off. Two months ago, neither had dreamed that this day would ever come, that this day would be so near.

It was the day for the break up date.

They had been together for two years. They were the ideal couple, but only for a year. Then, the tensions had begun, the fights had become serious. There were innumerable misunderstandings, lots of failed explanations, anger, tears, grudges and everything bad. The talks had not reduced, but every time they did, they were either yelling at each other or saying the final goodbye. There had been a hundred final goodbyes. The addiction to each other never let them go apart.

Last night was different. The argument had turned ugly. Instead of trying to make up, they had begun to blame each other and talk about old incidents that each had been hurt by because of the other, old stories that they had thought were long forgotten.

"I don't want to talk to you." She had said.
"Yes, run away into hiding when you know its your fault."
"I don't want to be with you any longer. Do you understand that?" she spoke slowly, softly.
"Yea me neither. I am fed up of the daily fights," his ego spoke aloud without a pause.
"Good thing that the feeling is mutual."

The line went dead.

It had taken him 20 minutes to let her words sink in. Then, he had called her back. It had rung only once before she picked up as if she was waiting for his call. He was glad.

"Hello.. hey.." he tried to speak.
"Let's meet one last time. Tomorrow. Anytime after 8am. Let me know the time."
"Last time? Now you're kidding." He hoped aloud.
"I told you. I have had enough. And I am serious this time."
He had heard those words from her earlier. But he could hear the coldness in her tone this time. She was dead serious. He was searching for words when,
"Goodnight." She slipped the word into the silence; and the line went dead again.

It was 8 am, 21st May when he called her to tell her the meeting time. He could've just sent an SMS, but he wanted to hear her chirps as many times as he could. He had only a few more hours left with the person he loved the most in the world.

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INTERMISSION: This is a story I wrote last year, eleven months ago, to be precise. Had posted it elsewhere the very day I wrote it. Now, I'm sharing it here for everyone to see. This was my first attempt at story writing. So far, my last too. Errr.. okay, I confess- this was my second attempt. The first one turned out to be a little too mushy ;)

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Part-II

The meeting place was only a few minutes away from his house, but he left early. He stood at a corner of the busy street trying to concentrate on the noise and traffic around to distract his wailing mind, but every time someone pushed him in the crowd, he'd realize that he had gotten lost in his thoughts, yet again.

"Hi-ii!" The familiar musical chirp made him turn around quickly and gather himself. It was her. She smiled at him. He tried to return a smile, but couldn't get himself to do it. He was busy searching in her eyes for a clue to know what she had in mind, but her eyes gave nothing away. He looked at his watch and fixed his gaze there for several seconds. Then he dropped his hand to his side and then his head. She was bang on time. Every time he had complained that she was always late and made him wait. Today, for the break up date, she was on time. It seemed like she was in a hurry to finish it all off.

They took the table next to the door at the coffee shop, fidgeted with the menu card for a few seconds without looking in it and then ordered. She fixed her gaze on the view that she had from her side of the table. She watched the sea rush to shore and tried her best to keep an uncaring face, because she knew that if she showed the slightest hint of sadness, he'd understand.

Coffee arrived. He sat across the little round table staring into it as if he was searching for life's answers in it.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, as if talking to his coffee.

She looked at him from the corner of her eye, at his coffee and back at the waves. She quickly blinked away her tears and was glad that he hadn't noticed.
"Have your coffee", she said and began sipping hers.

He did not budge. He just sat there stealing glimpses of her.
"Why aren't you having your coffee?" she asked him.
He turned to it and looked at it with disgust as if it was a rotting animal. He turned back to her and looked at her questioning eyes as if asking her, 'Will you take me back if I drink this?'

As if reading his mind, she said, "We need to talk. And I don't want to do it here with so many people around. So..."
It took him precisely 20 seconds to finish the contents. The bill was paid and in no time, he was standing, waiting for her to lead the way.

She got up and smiled into his eyes, "Come, let's go and sit on those rocks."

While they walked, he held her little finger. "Don't leave me," he said and tightened his grip.

Her silence made it clear that she had made up her mind when she left from home that day. Silently, they walked ahead till they reached the rocks and settled down on a clean, dry one.

"I did not sleep last night," she said. "Why did you fight with me? Won't you let me sleep in peace ever?"

"I'm sorry. Please don't go away like this. I cannot...", he voice cracked and he looked away.

"This is not easy for me either," she said and reached out to her handbag.

'A goodbye card probably,' he thought and impatiently waited for her hand to come out of the bag. Out came the newspaper. He looked at her, puzzled.

"Is Rahul Gandhi sexy?" She read out aloud and giggled.

"I thought we have something to talk about," he reminded her.

"Oh come on! We have our whole life for that. Let's read the paper together today," she said, and leaned onto his shoulder.