WRONG NUMBER
MAYA
Ding
Ding
Maya’s phone was blowing up with messages. She opened her eyes and groaned before stretching her hand towards the side drawer to grab her phone.
Ding
It buzzed again with another message. As soon as her hands touched the phone, she sighed for the umpteenth time before fluttering her eyes open to check the message.
She had a banging headache and had no plans for the day after getting fired by her ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend the day before, so she planned to sleep in.
Sleep through her heartbreak and grief.
Her eyes shot up when she saw the reply from Lucas’s number. She had sent him a message drunk. She thought he was going to reply, but he didn’t, and she continued with her drinking till she slept off.
There were five bottles of beer on her bedside table.
“Really?”
“You hate me?”
“But I don’t hate you.”
Those were the replies he had sent back.
The message made her brows shoot up, and a scoff left her mouth at his audacity.
She had sent him a message because she thought it was high time she gave him a piece of her mind. Although she knew how weird he had been acting recently, she had never thought he was cheating.
And not with someone she knew. Her boss. Their boss.
When Maya found Lucas making out with Jessica, it took her less than a minute to process what she saw. In anger, she plunged her phone at Jessica. Jessica grabbed the phone from where it had dropped at her feet, strode to the five-story building’s window, and threw Maya’s phone out the window.
Maya wanted nothing more than to forget for a minute that Jessica was her boss and drag her by the hair throughout the building to teach her a lesson for sleeping with her boyfriend, Lucas, when everyone knew they were dating.
Maya was fired, and that was when it dawned on her that everything she saw wasn’t a dream or a figment of her imagination.
Furiously, Maya typed back. “You are a jerk, Lucas. I regret falling in love with you. Do you know what I regret most? I thought you were responsible, and you were the one. Apparently, you are not. You are just like the rest of them. You are a man whore, a jerk, a nincompoop, a brat, and nothing short of a man-child. I repeat, I HATE YOU!”
It was similar to the message she sent him last night, but she didn’t care. She wanted him to know how much of a nuisance he was.
The moment she tapped on the send button, she buried her face in between her palms, her chest heaving with boiling rage.
Everything about yesterday came rushing back. Maya felt hurt and deserted. She felt pathetic, like a loser.
And the only thing that could comfort her was sending Lucas a piece of her mind, hurling curses at him, calling him a jerk, and telling him that she hated him now.
He never replied, though, until now.
Maya had gotten a new phone, and she was thankful that she wouldn’t have to see the memories of their two-year relationship. She didn’t want any reminders. She got five bottles of beer and a box of cake to celebrate her miserable breakup.
“Now I know I was right when I muttered to myself that this must be a wrong number.” The reply came before she could drop her phone.
Maya’s brow furrowed, and she scoffed. “You think I’m a fool? Stop acting all high and mightly when you are nothing but a loser. Any man who loses a woman like me has lost…” A whimper left her mouth.
She couldn’t complete typing because she had no idea who she was deceiving.
Jessica was rich; she was her boss. On the other hand, Maya relied only on her salary, which was gone now. There was no doubt Jesicca was better than her in every aspect of life, Maya thought to herself.
Her phone dinged again, and she quickly wiped the lone tear that rolled down her face.
She had vowed not to cry for him.
“Did you get dumped too? Is there a dumping virus in town or what?”
Realization dawned on her as shame soaked through her.
Apparently, it wasn’t Lucas. Lucas wouldn’t say something like that to her when he had just dumped her ass.
“Whoever the loser is, I’m sure he will regret it. Don’t worry, wipe your tears and be happy again. Go out on dates, go out with friends, go to the cinemas, take a vacation to get your mind off the jerk, and come back stronger.”
A mockery of laughter left Maya’s mouth.
First, she had no friends except Lucas. Second, she hated crowds and had never been to a cinema. Third, she had no money for a vacation, so there was no way any of his solutions would help her.
“I am not crying for that jerk!”
“I didn’t mean to make you feel bad, though. Whether you cry or not, it doesn’t matter. The fool here is him, for letting you go.”
An unconscious smile spread through her face, and her tongue darted out to wipe her dry lips.
She dragged her disheveled hair up as she began to type again with a newfound enthusiasm. “I guess I got his number wrong. Sorry.”
She had tried to recall his number, and after a few moments of muttering the ten digits, she thought she had gotten it.
“I thought so. How come? Did you delete his number right away?” the stranger asked, and she shook her head as though he could see her.
“You won’t believe what happened, actually.” She sent the message.
“I can’t wait to hear it. Tell me what happened and how it happened.”
“You wouldn’t believe it, though. Now that I think of it, I think I acted a little crazy.” Another laughter rippled through her when she remembered the look on Jessica’s face when she threw her phone at her. The phone smacked her forehead before dropping to the floor.
“Now I am full-blown curious. Did you pour some hot water on his head?”
“No!” Maya laughed again. “He cheated on me with my boss. We work together and Jessica said she would be heading out for a meeting with him. I thought I did something wrong as her PA so I decided to go ask what the matter was and why she was asking her manager which was Lucas, to go with her to a meeting instead of me. When I walked in, he was eating her face up.”
“What the hell! Like a a desert?”
His sarcasm made her throw her head backward and laugh like a maniac.
“Wait, are you serious?”
“Yes.” She typed and continued. “So I flung my hand at her. It landed on her forehead and she stumbled backward in shock. I thought for a moment she was going to do the same.”
“What did she do?” At that point, the stranger’s curiosity was obvious, and she wished he were there so she could see all his expressions.
Maya knew she would laugh so hard if she saw the look on his face when she eventually revealed how Jessica retaliated.
“Well, she threw my phone through her window. All the way down to the ground floor. Our office was on the tenth.”
He sent a laughing emoji, and she smiled.
Since lapsed. Her phone didn’t ding anymore, and she felt loneliness sinking in.
Concern shadowed her eyes as she stared expectantly at the phone, waiting desperately for it to vibrate with another message.
A minute passed, and before she knew it, ten torturous minutes had passed without another message from him.
She swallowed her pride, unlocked the phone, and began typing. “Sorry for the long talk. I’m sure you were bored to death.”
She tapped sent just as his message came in.
She shifted in her seat and read his message. “I’m so sorry that happened to you. It’s more sad than you lost your job. I’m sorry to hear that. Meanwhile, you should do things to keep yourself busy and take your mind off the people who aren’t worth it.”
She smiled again, hope springing up to life once again.
She had no friends, and with Lucas gone, she knew she would be lonely for a long time.
It had always been a hard task for her to make friends, and whenever she did, it was difficult to keep them. Moreover, it was even more difficult for her to trust them whenever they stayed.
Her life has always been static. Lucas was the only person she had trusted in years.
“No, I was prepping for a presentation. I thought I had replied and when I didn’t see your message anymore, I had to check to see I didn’t tap the send button.”
That was the reply to her previous message about boring him to death. Maya nodded in understanding. He wasn’t ignoring her on purpose.
“Ok.” She tapped sent.
She was suddenly short of words, and the only thing she could think of was why he asked if she had been dumped. That was prompting her to want to ask if he had been dumped, too.
But she knew she couldn’t. She had openly told him about hers, but she wasn’t sure he could do the same with her.
She wondered why she trusted this man in the first place to tell him about the man who had cheated on her with her boss. She hoped he wasn’t one of those men who would laugh about her pathetic situation behind her back.
“Ok? Are you sleepy?”
She shook her head, forgetting he wasn’t there.
“You seemed busy. I don’t want to disturb you with my petty talks.”
“Honestly, I can’t remember the last time I had a chat like this. I’m always so busy I forgot how thrilling chats like this could be. I enjoyed conversing with you anyway. I need to get ready for work.”
Maya looked up at her wall clock. It was just 5 am, and she wondered what job it was.
She felt a sudden urge to continue chatting with him, to forget her situation for a moment, and to thrive in the gleeful moment
But she understood what it meant to work under and be answerable to someone. She knew he had to get to work, and she respected that
“Hey, before I forget, what’s the name?” He asked.
“I’m Maya, can I save your number?”
“Sure.”
“With what?”
He didn’t reply even after she saw that he had read the message.
“Save it with Lucas."
Maya jumped to her feet, dropping the phone to the bed, her eyes wide open in shock.
What? Lucas? Was he her Lucas or…
She grabbed the phone again, but his message dropped before she could ask what was on her mind. She read it quickly, her heart sinking into her stomach.
“My name is Lucas Montero."
