"Theo, wait! I am not seeing anyone. You have got it completely wrong. There have been so many people around but never, not even once they crossed my mind because you were there always. I loved and hated you, all at once. I only realised that how much I missed you when I couldn't tell you things, anymore. I realised how much I missed you whenever Taylor Swift came on shuffle, and I couldn't picture anything but you, us in all those songs. I missed how much you made me happy, how you made me feel. I'd have done anything to have that back, to have you back. I wasn't ready to let you go. I loved and hated you, all at the same time. People come and go but for me you weren't someone like that to me because you weren't like cigarette breaks but a whole forest fire. I liked my name only when you took it. I wasn't that desperate to have a company. I had learnt to sleep alone and avoid the cold corners of my bed. I never let anyone tell me that all this don't matter. I was always surrounded by people but still I was lonely because none of them understood me the way you did. I always thought about you but didn't say anymore. I wondered if we both ever thought about each other at the same time. I turned off everything so that I could stay away from you but then that day when you showed up suddenly, I was taken aback. I wasn't prepared to face you. I was weak and didn't want to come that way in front of you. That's why I walked away and not because I was seeing someone. I have loved you all this time and I still love. I will love you till my last breath, till the end of my existence."
I felt his warmth as he hugged me and wiped my tears away. He kissed my forehead and ran his hands through my hairs, calming me down.
"I love you, Alice!" He looked into my eyes and made me realise that he meant each and every word he just said.
I smiled and said, "I too feel the same deep regards for you, Mr. Bentley."
"I have to leave now. I have some work. So, can I hope that I'll see you again, this evening?"
"Yes, absolutely!"
"Okay. So, when will you get done by your work?" He asked.
"6 in the evening." I found it funny when I realised that my work hour was only till 6 in the evening but how few months back I used to work over-time, everyday and came home mostly at the weekends.
"Fine, then I'll pick you up from your office. See you." He placed a light kiss on my cheek and then went away. I kept on looking at him as he crossed the road.
As he reached the other end, he stopped. Before I could guess what he was doing, my phone ringed. Why was he calling me from just across the road?
"Theo?" I answered his call.
"Alice!" I heard his excited voice from the other end.
"What happened?" I asked.
"I love you." He said and flew a kiss towards me.
"This is why you called?" I played.
"I love..." Before I could complete my sentence, the scene before me took my breath away.
"Theo!" His name couldn't stay away from my lips.
He was lying there, unconscious, in pool of blood. There was a huge crowd around him already. The car that hit him, didn't even stopped to look back and fled away.
I ran towards him. As I reached, I kneeled down besides him and took his bleeding head into my lap.
"Please, someone call an ambulance!" I sobbed.
"It's on its way." I heard someone from the crowd.
"Theo! Theo! Open your eyes. Please. Open your eyes. I am here. Just be with me. Look at me. Theo!" He was having trouble breathing and running short of it. He didn't open his eyes. The only proof that he was still alive was his faint heartbeat and some of his uneven breathing.
