Chapter 1
Today, I am yet again holding your snow-white scarf in my arms, your scent has faded in it, but it feels like you are still here with me showing your warm smile, telling me that you feel cold and I would hold you in my arms just as tight as I am holding your scarf right now.
Two years ago, on the same day as today, I saw you, there in that café, wearing your snow-white scarf; just as soft and just as warm as your smile. That coffee that you were sipping and I remember how I wished I were that mug so your lips would touch my body that could make me forget about all the physical touch that I ever felt on my skin. You looked so lonely but yet so impatient, like you were looking for somebody, no- maybe you were waiting for somebody. And that somebody was not me. I could see you letting your breathe out, the cloud that was forming as you sighed; tired of waiting for somebody.
That day was not just a regular day. As a struggling cameraman and a supportive friend to a reporter I was on a hunt for a scoop, in fact a “BREAKING NEWS”. Sara Williams, my only friend and also my ex- girlfriend dreamt of this day for 6 years. Sara and I dated for almost a year before mutually breaking up and deciding that we were just better off as friends. Nevertheless, she has been in a relationship with this 9-5 guy, Daniel Jones, for 5 years now. I always wondered how their relationship has been so stable despite being together for so long and in fact I have asked her quite a few times “Hey, why is your relationship so stable?” and also joked about it-“ Should I try to break you guys apart?”. I was never jealous, I guess I always knew even when Sara and I were dating that I was not meant to be with Sara. Well quite in fact, I did not know what “meant to be” even meant.
My idea of romance was well- nothing. Going on a date made me feel trapped and talking to women was always a tedious task for me. Sara was different, she was easy to talk to and I did not have to guess if she liked something or not, she would always say it on my face. On our first date, I took her to a Sushi place, and it should be noted that I love Sushi, but Sara does not. She spit the first piece of Sushi she took in her mouth. It hurt me but at least she didn’t pretend to like it just because I was her boyfriend, and it was our first date. She is always very bubbly and a great care giver. Sometimes, I think that was the only reason I decided to give dating her a shot. However, we had a good friendship with zero chemistry. She always felt like a platonic friend and so was our relationship- completely platonic. I think we tried kissing each other once while we were drunk on Margarita- Vodka cocktail and the next thing we realized was that we were not meant to be, not at all. We still went on silly dates after breakup and it all felt so natural, no drama and no complications.
For the longest time, I had only seen love stories in books and controversially in newspapers. When we were dating, we were young, freshmen in college and with fire in heart to become big shots. After struggling for a good five years and burning in the same fire we once ignited, we finally found a lead that could turn our lives upside down. Riko, or should I say “The Riko”, the top- rated, A-listed actress who was supposedly dating the son of the business tycoon, Roan Sinclair. We somehow managed to get the lead from one of our very few informants that she was seeing her “rumored” partner in a small café in the downtown. I was scheduled to go to the café at 10:00 pm almost towards the closing.I vividly remember, we understood the time to have been decided believing there would be less people at night and especially during the closing hours. I said to Sara, “ Don’t you think it is obvious that they are trying really hard to hide their relationship, I mean even if they exposed their relationship, they will not be hated and in fact I think they will be a power couple instead.” To this Sara replied raising her tone a little, “Don’t say that you asshole, it is our big shot, if they revealed it on their own, don’t you think we will lose this chance too?”. I could not speak a word.
I was too eager to capture the two lovebirds on my camera or should I say I was too excited for the success I was getting after this news would be published exclusively on our paper tomorrow. I went to the café at 9:30 and found a perfect place to have my eyes on them. That spot was near the café and I could clearly see everything that was going on inside the café. I spouted out, “Hmph, today I am not gonna let anyone distract me from my scoop.” Minutes passed by and I was still waiting, the café started getting vacant with only a few customers inside. I had my eyes fixated on the tables in the café as if they were going to reward me for my staring strength. I wholly believed that no one could stop me from getting my precious photographs today.
But little did I know, I would unconsciously stare at this young man nearly in his mid-20s wearing a well knitted white sweater and white scarf that covered half of his face. As I saw him, I saw his eyes, I wanted to see more, I saw his slender fingers strolling on the edge of the mug, I wanted to see more. I saw his hands as he lifted the mug filled with hot coffee, I wanted to see more, I saw his lips touching the mug as he sipped his coffee, I wanted it, I wanted to become that mug in that instance and- I realized I started feeling so hot in that freezing weather out of nowhere.
The more that I realized, I noticed that he was constantly checking his watch and then his phone and then his watch again as if he was waiting for somebody. A waiter came near him and said something that I could not hear from that distance, but I believe he pointed out that it was closing time. He reluctantly got up and collected his brown coat from the back of the chair he was sitting on and moved out of the café. As he was moving out, he checked his phone again and smiled. Everything stopped; I don’t even remember if I was even breathing, I had cooled down for a moment, but I started feeling the heat surge into my body yet again. I watched him go further and further away from the café, my eyes still fixed on the alley he disappeared from, when I heard something, something that brought me back to my senses that I didn’t realize I had lost. A bubble popped near the back of my head, I realized something, my NEWS!
