“Hey” Kate looked very worried and I gave her a grunt as an answer to her greeting which I would say was appropriate in that moment. “I am really sorry to disturb you like this but…” she began to whimper and her tears were now free and flowing. I was so confused, a girl I hardly talked to and who I secretly hated for obvious reasons was at my door crying over what I wasn’t sure about. At that point I had forgotten all about Abdul and we were just two women talking.
I asked her to come in but she insisted that we stay outside to talk “I’m so sorry, I am very sorry… I didn’t know where else to go” she said cleaning the last of her tears; by this time I had figured that their wedding didn’t hold and Abdul was a no show.
We sat on the pavement and she told me how she and Abdul had a huge fight hours before their wedding and he disappeared “on the bright side, he came back for the wedding” I said and she looked at me as if I was a naïve two year old girl who still believed Santa exists.
“Oh Asari, he never came back. He never came back” she struggled to hold the tears back. Obviously I had already figured that Abdul never went back for the wedding but I had to ask and that was my own coy way of asking. “We had this huge fight, he said somethings, I said somethings and he left. That was it. He never came back. I’ve looked everywhere and an hour ago I realized that he may be here” she looked at me like I held the keys to her destiny
“I’m sorry Kate, he isn’t here” I said and that led to a moment of uncomfortable silence. I wrestled with the thought of confessing to her that he came over; she was really really sad and that made me sad too. At least if Abdul married her only one of us would have been sad but he had managed to make both of us sad.
She thanked me and stood up to be on her way “he came here this morning” I blurted out “oh. What did he say?” she was now calm, I didn’t expect it; I thought she was going to get more emotional and anxious “he didn’t say much. He seemed upset, I was going somewhere when he came so there was no time to talk” I explained praying that she wasn’t going to asked me anymore questions.
She sat back down on the pavement, as if in thought “I knew it” she muttered “you knew what?” I asked watching her carefully “I knew that he was still in love with you” and her eyes scanned mine like a Lasik machine but I didn’t say anything. I was too embarrassed to.
What was I going to say to her? That yes indeed he was still in love with me and I him? There was nothing more to say, I told her the truth and she put two and two together and that was it.
She thanked me again and got into her car but didn’t drive off immediately; actually she didn’t drive off at all. She just sat there staring into the night as it gradually became morning, I wanted to invite her in but she looked like she wanted to be left alone.
When I entered my room, the whole conversation felt surreal; like it didn’t happen but it did. So Abdul didn’t marry Kate after all, I didn’t know how to feel; I was neither happy nor sad. I just couldn’t believe how that day went and eventually turned out.
First I agreed to follow Tobe out of the desperation of heartbreak, then Abdul Showed up and I sent him away thinking that he was going to get married but his supposed wife to be showed up at my door step looking for him; not without telling me how she had always known that Abdul was still in love with me.
Thinking about everything was too much for my aching head but thankfully the sleeping pills I took earlier were starting to kick in. I fell asleep wondering where Abdul was hiding and just before I fell asleep the answer came to me; I knew where he was.