You and I

"So, how have you been?", he asked her.

Hesitant to reply, trying to smile she said, "Yeah, I have been good."

"That's good to know. You have changed a lot, you cut your hairs and I must say this look suits you.",trying to take the conversation further he said.

"Oh, thank you. You, yourself are looking better then ever...",she said.

"Yeah. Good to know that you noticed. I remember you always pushed me to exercise, so I thought better late than never.", he said with a smile.

Smiling back at him, she said, "Oh so you remember that."

"Yeah I do remember that. I remember everything that you said, everything you did. It was the best time of my life and it's all because of you.", he said, reminiscing the old days.

Her cheeks turned a little red and trying to hide her smile, she said, "You are giving me extra credit. It was not all because of just me, it was you too, better, it was us. You and I were a team, tagging together..."

"Sometimes tagging against each other...", funnily he said, interrupting her.

She couldn't help but smile, "And you interrupting me in the middle of a conversation..."

"And then you fighting with me for that...", he said.

She continued,"And then you not accepting your mistake..."

"And you would get more angry and I would bring chocolates for you and then you would forgive me.", he said.

They both smiled at each other.

While smiling at him, she looked at him. His side burns have turned a little grey, she noticed. "Can I tell you something?", she said.

"You can say anything to me.", he said, while looking at her.

She looked into his eyes this time, the same twinkle as was five years before in his eyes comforted her, "Half of the times I was never really angry but I would pretend to be angry so you would pamper me. I liked that."

"Can I say something?", he asked.

With a affirmative look, she said, "Of course. Do you even need to ask that?"

"I knew that you pretended getting angry. But I just liked pampering you so I would go along with it. I liked how your face would glow up when i came with the chocolates and sometimes with the flowers too. I liked the way you hugged me. I liked everything about you. In fact, I have not till day realized why did we break up.", He looked at her and said.

"Well we were young, wanted different things in life. I guess the timing was not right then for us.",looking outside the window, as if searching for an answer, she said.

"Maybe. This was our favorite restaurant, you remember. Every little thing we used to celebrate here. Look, the manager still recognizes us.", waving at the manager, he said.

She looked at the manager, who was smiling at them and gave him a smile back. Then she looked at him," Yeah, I do remember this place. After we broke up I had to change my route as passing through here made me nostalgic every time and all those emotions would come back to me. I could only think of you then.", this time there was a little pain in her voice and he could sense it.

"And I would come to this place daily, hoping to catch a glimpse of you. I would sit here and reminisce over our memories,  You know how many coffees I had to order just to keep sitting here.", naughtily he said.

She looked a little surprised and said, "I am surprised to know that after the magnanimous fight I had with you, you still came here to catch a glimpse of me. And, hey I would like to apologize for that fight. I blew it out of proportion. It could have been a peaceful break up, after all.", sounding a little guilty she said.

"You need not apologize to me. In fact I think I should apologize for not understanding that you were just thinking about us and our future. I shouldn't have talked about our problems to my friends. Their meddling ruined things for us. Its good that you broke up with me. I needed that reality check. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have gone out and searched for a job for me. I never cared much about security and all but you opened my eyes.", assuring her, he said.

She felt a little better hearing this, and said, "I got a better job too. And you remember how you always said that I should continue singing so I got with some people in my office and formed a band. So, all in all we both did good for each other during the relationship and after that too. It's so amazing to know that."

"Yes, it is. You've always been my support system.", he said.

"And you've been mine.", she said. They both went quite for a little while. She saw him picking up his Irish coffee and taking a sip. He saw her fingers pulling her hairs from her face and behind her ears. He always loved when she did this. She saw him looking at her while she was pulling her hairs away from her face and behind her ears and caught a light in his eyes. She knew how he always loved it when she did this. They couldn't help but smile at each other.

"What now?", he asked her.

Sounding little confused, she asked," What do you mean?"

"I mean I enjoyed meeting with you after so long. It seems like nothing has changed. You are my best friend of all and you know that. Although we are meeting after three years, it just seems like yesterday. I hope we continue meeting.", sounding hopeful, he said,

"I hope so  as well. I like meeting with you too. You know what, I though after we broke up, I will move away, meet someone else and put all this behind me and I did meet someone, but I couldn't put all of this, all of you, in the past. You always were in my thoughts, no matter if we hadn't talked for days or weeks or months or even years. You were always the first thought when I woke up in the morning and the last thought before I shut my eyes at nights. You were always with me.", she confessed to him.

"Same was with me too. And I can't tell you how many times I tried calling you but of course you have changed your number but I didn't hoping you would call and see you did. Thank God I didn't change my number.", happily he said.

"Thank God you didn't.", happily she said.

"You and I were always meant to be together. Distance and time doesn't matter if you are destined to be together. So what do you say, can we give it another try? I am changed man now.", he asked a little afraid that she might reject his proposition.

"Yes, I would like that. I really think that we should give it another chance but don't change yourself too much. Only some parts you need to.", she said smiling.

"Hey, we can work on this together. You give me the list and I will implement it.", sounding relieved, he said.

She couldn't control but laugh, "ha-ha, very funny. You are pretty perfect the way you are. I am so relieved that you also wanted to get back together. Otherwise this would've been a little embarrassing. This is the best coffee I had in three years."

"Mine too. Let's go for dinner then, I have so much to tell you.", asking for the check, he said.

She looked at her watch and said,"  Yeah sure, let's go for dinner but I have some work to do. So I will meet you in an hour and decide where we are going for dinner.", she said, getting up from her chair and picked up her purse.

"Ok, I will see you in an hour then.", he said and picked up his car keys and started walking towards the door.

She looked at him going off and suddenly a little sadness gripped her heart. She called at him, "Hey, so see you in an hour?"

"Yes, see you in an hour.", coming close to her, he reassured her.

She hugged him tightly and said, "Thank you. I never knew what to do without you. For a moment there, I thought we are really over. Thank you for believing in us."

He noticed that her hairs have the same flowery scent as they used to. He looked at her and said, "Come let me drop you to your office."

In the car they both were silent but it was a happy silence. Rain was pouring outside. Everything again looked rosy to her. He drove peacefully now without needing to light a smoke. He was happy that she was sitting right beside him. In fifteen minutes, they reached her office. Opening the door she smiled at him and he returned the smile.

"Hey I guess I will wait for you here. Do your work and then lets go together.", being unable to take his eyes off her, he told her.

"Alright. I will just go and be back.", she said trying to control her smile.

Happily, he said,"Hey Thank you. And as far as it's concerned, You and I will never be over."