"Ah! Why it has to be broken here in midway?"

"I think to have fun with us, Sam." I teased my silly buddy.

"Ha! Ha! Very funny. I'm freezing here and you are cracking bad jokes with your aged bike."

"Hey! Watch your words, dude! Nothing about my darling Ok." I warned him as I know how it irritates him when I prefer my bike over him.

"Yeah, yeah, no words against your love. Give me your gloves or my hands will freeze."

"No, you should have worn yours but no it would affect your cool looks, now be Icy cool."

I refused as was wearing a jacket with pockets, and his hands were already in it while I was dragging my broken bike along with us in the hope to find some mechanic or garage.

"Ok, cool, let me freeze on this freezing evening, at outer skirt of our old town. This is the reward of being your Best Friend." The drama queen in male attire complained.

"That was pathetic, you know that right?" I chuckle a bit at his complaint.

"If there was a girl instead of your friend you might have given your that damn Jacket, and not even gloves for me huh!" Another complaint, who would believe this guy is a working 27 years man, not a college-going teenager.

"Ok, ok, once we get a mechanic you can get my gloves but then you will be on the front and I will sit at the backseat." Here comes the complaining face only, "Dude, we are almost in town."

"Thank God!" He exhaled, overlooking my words.

"For what?"

"You go give a bike, I will find some table and order some comforting food for us."

I turned around to locate a small cafe at the corner of the street, thankfully, a small mechanical shop was also there just a few yards opposite to it.

***

"Atharv! Here Dude, this side." Sam waved his arms with a loud voice as if calling from miles.

The cafe was small yet quite cozy, seems a lot had changed after we left the town.

"Relax Dude, you don't need to be that excited to get a table and disturb others." I reminded him about the place being packed with people, as I approached him.

"Certainly I'm not excited for a table but Her." He gave his brightest smile since we had started our journey.

But I found myself blank, out of space as he moved a bit to reveal the person sitting opposite to him.

"Arya..." All I could mutter was the name, which always echoes in me like an eternal sound in voids of this cosmos.

"Hi, Atharv. How are you?"

That voice, I felt like my feet got cemented at place or my body got paralyzed at the spot.

"Arya..." I tried to fake a smile, "I'm good. You here...all's well, right?"

The moment I gathered myself, I could see a weird coldness in those deep brown eyes. Even though she was trying her best to hide it behind her contagious smile.

"Yaa, all good. Even great. As we met. Finally, after such a long time." She exhaled with some laughter and I could see something changing in her eyes.

As if she was more conscious of my presence and my ability to see her soul through eyes.

"Yeah, five years. You took a bit longer to come back." I couldn't help and said it out with some bitterness. How long one can hold back grudges.

"Yeah, new place, new job for a fresher, you know, how much time and dedication these multinationals demands." She replied looking at the table while her thumb was tracing the rim of the coffee mug placed in front of her.

"We surely know it now." Sam chuckled, nudging at my arm.

"So how's life going? You both came alone? Where are your partners?" She shot at us with curious looks?

"Partners? I'm still a Bachelor Ma'am. Looking for someone who can match up to my coolness." As his nature, Sam replied and started to look around for some girl to try his luck.

"Atharv... What about you?"

"He is just..." Sam was about to spell it when I intervene in it, "just found someone. He meant I have just found someone."

Sam gave me the look and stood up, "You guys please carry on your interviews. I will get some hot coffee and snacks for you both."

"I thought you were freezing." I reminded him as he didn't mention himself.

"I will certainly have something but with that pretty girl at the window table. I think We know each other. She just smiled back at me." My friend would never stop trying.

"Sorry Arya, hope you won't mind. See you sometime, after all, we are staying here for a whole week."

"Oh, I wish we could. But I'm just leaving the town. I stayed here for the last few days." Her sight shifted from Sam to me, "time to go for me."

"Ah Damn! But please leave your contact number, Atharv don't forget to write in your pocket diary." He instructed me before leaving for another table at the other end of the room.

As he left all of a sudden everything had changed between us drastically.
The waiter came and placed my coffee and some sandwiches between us. I took my mug and started to gaze at it, all to resist looking at her.

What if she gets that there was still no one in my life. That I couldn't walk away from her thoughts.

"So, eventually you found Her." She said, sipping her coffee.

"Yeah, finally." I looked up at her to find her beaming at me, that look and sparkle in her eyes... God, help me to resist the temptation. Help me to stand by my dignity. I can't let her know. But what to do with these foolish senses of mine.

I felt a hot rush of blood, as if the whole blood of the body was warming up and rushing towards the heart.

"She must be an awesome person that you turned red at her thoughts only." She commented with a smirk.

"She is beautiful, and yeah gem of a person," I added to hide my lie.

"I'm happy that you are over me." She replied placing the empty mug on the table and taking a bite of the sandwich.

What was that?

Was that jealousy or annoyance? That I was denying to accept that she still affects me.

"Credit goes to you." I simply added, "where's your fiancee? I heard about your engagement, the last time we visited the town." I didn't expect but she looked a bit shock to hear my words. As if wasn't expecting it.

"He is good, even I have to leave because of him only he was planning the weekend outing so I had to cut my stay here short." She said with a blush gulping the last bite of her sandwich.

"Great to see you happy," I commented looking away at Sam across the room.

"That's what we friends do exist, right?" She said but her tone, it sounded irked.

"Yeah, as you said."

"don't you think that you remember everything, like everything quiet in detail?" Her voice felt more annoyed.

"Yes, I do. As you used to say that I am careless, forget things. Now I have changed myself. Like a lot." I took another sip of my coffee, this time looking into her irritated eyes.

Why I still can gaze into them for hours without blinking?

"Right, you are changed. And it's really good, good for you. All the best Atharv." Suddenly, she stood up and grabbed her coat from the back of her chair.

"Hope you won't forget to invite us to your wedding like you do in your engagement." I taunted as she walked past me offering my hand for a last handshake.

She looked at my stretched hand for a moment before giving her cold hand into mine, "Certainly, you will be persuaded." She stood still for a moment, I felt like holding her and demand to stay but I couldn't.

"I should take your leave."

"Yeah, sure. Your hands are freezing. Use it." I placed my gloves in her hand.

She left, as she had always done. Leaving me behind, shattered to collect my own pieces, is what she had done five years back. That's what she had done again.

I placed my coffee mug back at the table as now there was no need to hide behind it.

I left my town with Sam, in the hope to forget her, to move over her. Instead, I found a nice career, house, and a nice amount as monthly income. In short, I found all except an excuse to forget her.

"Atharv, what happened? Why are looking so devastated? Where is Arya?"

"Like always, She is gone, to her, some perfect guy. Who was waiting for her?" I said venomously.

"What? She found someone so quick?" Sam exclaimed with surprise.

"She got engaged six months back Sam. What's so quick in it?" I looked back at the table to pick my mug. Half of the sandwiches are gone!

"What? Don't you know about it? She broke her engagement last month. My Mom told me in her Town's hot gossip section." Sam informed me to surprise me.

She broke her engagement!
Damn! That's what she was trying to hide. She was stressed that's why she ate so quickly and this much of sandwiches.

"Wait a second, Sam, She wasn't wearing any ring." I realized as when we shook hands there was no ring in her fingers.

"Yeah, but why you are so surprised or should say happy?"

"Because she got irritated to know that I found someone. What if She had broken her engagement because of me?"

"Why will she do that for you?" Sam looked more puzzled than ever.

"Because I had told her years back that I love her." I got tears of hope.

"You never told me that there was something between you two." That idiot Sam complained standing between me and the existing door.

I rushed out to confront her but I was too late for it. She was gone.

I still hope to see her back someday, as I visited her home and family and left my message for her to talk to me, certainly with my number.

Sam had made fun of my over smartness, who claims to have someone in life in front of the person you might die for.

Yeah, his complaint regarding that gloves thing proven correct.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_7gnRY3vsk