The Guy She Never Met

CHAPTER 47: Decisions

Between five cups of coffee and a sandwich, I told him everything.

I mean everything. From our first chat, our likes, his ego, his liking on a girl, revelation of our names, his plan on meeting, our late night chats, our supposed meeting, his apology till his question of meeting again. I even told him why I had actually gotten drunk that night.

After I finished telling him everything, Eric went into deep thought and I respected that. He did asked me to trust him and share all my doubts and I did.

The sky has gone dark. People are slowly leaving the park. The only sort of noise I can hear is the traffic of New York City. Eric is sitting right beside me, holding his fifth empty cup of coffee. He has his gaze fixed on the bridge which is now empty. His lips are in a cute pout.

Fifteen minutes have gone by and he's still in his deep thought. I've started to loose my patience.

"So....." No response.

"Eric?" Nothing.

Did I say something wrong? I tap his shoulder and nothing.

Oh my God!! Did he went to a shock? But I didn't say anything that would give him a shock.

"Eric? Eric? Eric? Eric? Eric?" I poke his arm non stop and still no response from him.

"Ricky!" I mimic Melanie's voice and he snaps out of his thoughts.

"Wow." What?

"Wow. I mean that guy's lucky to have your attention. I can't say much about this. You are feeling insecure."

Insecure?

"I'm just not sure whether I should meet him or not." I grumble in annoyance.

"No. You are afraid that he might not show up again. Afraid that the same thing will happen again. Believe me, I don't think it will happen again."

How can he be so sure?

"Okay. For an instance, if he does show up, what will I say?"

"You'll know what to say when you see him." He gives me a small smile.

"Okay." He's acting really calm, but I don't want to end it up in a disaster.

"You did forgive him right?" I nod.

"Then what are you waiting for?" I shrug myself. I don't know.

"From what you told me, you have actually changed this guy."

I raise my eyebrow. "Change? What do you mean?"

"This guy had a huge ego and you removed it by teaching him that-"

"Saying sorry doesn't hurt your ego." My eyes widen as we say the same phrase together.

How?

I look at him dumbfounded as he tries to avoid my shocking gaze.

That phrase was taught to me by my parents and I followed that in my whole life. How did he knew it? He can't know that unless...

"It's kind of getting late. Come on, I'll drop you off." I snap out of my thoughts as he grabs my arm and we walk back to the  parking lot of the company.

The whole ride back to my apartment went in silence and I appreciated that.

Eric stops the car in front of my building. I quickly got out of the suffocating atmosphere and shut the door.

"Liza." That name suddenly sounds very foreign to me.

I quickly turn back to look at him. He rolls down the window.

"Yes?"

"Think about meeting this friend of yours. Who knows what game fate might play with you and he might end up being your next door neighbor?" What's up with people saying this exact same thing?!

"You know that's the exact same thing Mark and Ari said to me and for the last time he is not Jake!" I raise my voice at the end. His expression is very much unreadable.

"You know, none of us said about your apartment's next door neighbor." With that he drove away, leaving me speechless.

                           *****

I toss and turn on my bed. I can't sleep. I look at the alarm beside me, it's only three am.

I've got too many questions on my mind and only one person can answer these. I sit up straight and take my phone from the nightstand.

' hey. Can't sleep. U up?'

I press the send button and I get a reply in an instant.

' me too.'

' I thought about meeting again.'

I think it's time to finally push those doubts aside and follow his advice.

' what did u think?'

'when do we meet?' I reply him having a knowing smile.