Tyla could hardly get a few hours of sleep that night. Her Saturday morning was lazy just as she had expected and she lazily cut some tomatoes, carrots and cucumbers and arranged them and poured some vinegar oil on it. She sat on the bed munching on the vegetables and started reading a Chemistry journal online. She read a few words and then started scrolling on her phone. She raised her hands out of laziness. She wanted a break from her routine and wanted to go on a trip. Her busy schedule could hardly spare her any time to think about a trip. Her weekdays had to be spent attending classes and doing practicals and her weekends working on papers. She was thinking about taking a trip during winter break after the exams. But even before that, a small weekend trip could fit in somewhere, couldn't it? But with whom?
She just couldn't imagine going on a trip with Carla, Alexa and Sarah. A whole weekend full of them would be simply unbearable. Besides, they never even considered her their friend. Maybe she could ask Dan and Michael. But hopefully they wouldn't consider it inappropriate. Or then she would have to start dating someone to go on a couples trip. And for that, starting with talking to someone, feeling a connection, going on a date, going on more dates, starting to like them, and finally dating them? Ummm, that's a long process. Well, a trip with the best friend and her now boyfriend (and her ex-crush and ex-best friend?) Mmm. Not such a good idea. They do need their privacy on a trip, at least for the initial months of dating. Maybe just skip the idea for now?
She sighed and started scrolling again. She was in a mood of procrastination and so decided to google Patrick James. Hah. Why didn't she do it till now? She googled him and read everything about him. She suddenly recalled, no news regarding a pregnancy. It appeared that the controversy got resolved somehow.
"That was really honest of him to confess a scandal like that to me." She thought with a partial smile on her face. "I mean, who would confess such an intimate detail, fake as it was, to a normal person? Why would he do that? Is it true that people are the most honest after midnight?"
She spent the next 2 hours scrolling down his Instagram profile. His most recent post was him holding his award for 'Beneath' with a caption thanking his fans for their love. The post was from more than a month ago. He wasn't that regular in posting pictures as his posts had at least 15 days-30 days of an interval between them. There was no sign of him dating anyone or having ever dated anyone. Did this guy live the ultimate single life or was he really that good at hiding his affairs?
She finally put her phone aside and started reading the online journal with a sense of satisfaction, having procrastinated enough.
The cafe was crowded, as expected to be on a Saturday. Tyla didn't seem as interested or enthusiastic and so Dan and Michael came up to her after finding some quiet time.
"Hey, what's up? You seem kind of down. I haven't seen you so disinterested and bored until now." Dan asked with a concerned voice.
"Hey…..well nothing special Dan."
"Are you feeling okay?"
"Well actually, you know, my roommate and her boyfriend went for a trip. As I was sitting alone in the room, I thought that I could use a trip too. I am feeling exhausted from this routine."
"Well, yeah, let's maybe plan something out." Dan replied, nodding approvingly.
"Yes, but make it a weekend." Tyla added.
"Well, it should be longer than that." Michael said.
"Well, so what, you're gonna get 5 days off from the cafe?" Dan asked.
"Well, nothing wrong with hoping." Michael replied.
At around closing time, when everyone was leaving, Dan approached Tyla.
"Let's hang out for sometime?"
"Hang out? As in?" Tyla was taken aback.
"Hangout. Let's take a walk or something, chill at a club, do something! Come on. I am tired!"
"Okay, okay, fine."
"Yup. Let me help with your closing time duties."
As they worked together in complete silence, Tyla wondered how despite talking to each other everyday, they had never spent any time alone and besides some occasional chatting, they hadn't had a lot of conversation on the phone either. She wondered as to what made him suddenly want to hang out with her that night. She thought of just asking him the reason.
"So, anything special?" She asked without looking at him.
"What do you mean?" He looked at her with surprise.
"Why did you suddenly want to hang out?"
"Well, I thought we're at that point where we can hang out without really having a reason."
"Hmm. Actually you're right. It's just that I hadn't thought about that till now. I mean…"
"Well, somebody gotta initiate it. I hope you're okay with this, though."
"Hah, I am pretty okay, but perhaps someone else might not be." Tyla smirked.
He looked at her.
"Well, what?"
"Really? Everyone knows, okay? Even the customers would be able to make that out."
"Duh."
"Your thing with Carla?" She gave a mischievous smile.
"There is no "thing"." Dan replied with contempt to which Tyla smiled.
They finished their work in silence and started walking along the quiet pavement. An occasional car or two passed by and the road was unusually quiet for a Saturday. The silence was much more evident due to the silence between them. The silence continued until Tyla spoke,
"So…..what do you have in mind?"
"Honestly, Tyla, walking along this road seems good enough for me."
"Really? Oh, I thought you might want to go clubbing or something."
"Not really….."
"Well, are you sure everything is okay?"
"Yeah, Tyla, come on, we are simply walking, aren't we?"
"Right…." Tyla wasn't entirely convinced. Though she considered Dan her good friend, they had never really simply hung out, just the two of them.
"So, oh yeah, you know, the guy, Patrick James showed up again yesterday night?"
Dan paused in the way and looked at her.
"He? Again? Really? Out of all the places, Breeze Cafe? Twice?" He looked at her with a mixed look of suspicion and amazement.
"I wish I had something to prove it to you." Tyla sighed at the lack of evidence yet again.
"No, no, no, not that I doubt you or anything. But I doubt him. What's up with him? And well, he could have shown up today. I do want to meet him."
"Mh-hmmm." Tyla didn't have much to say.
They walked in silence for some distance.
"So, how's your little band going? Any gigs?"
"Yeah, performing at a cafe next weekend."
"Oh, where?"
"It's a new place. Looking for a crowd. The owner is an old friend of Bryan."
"Ah, so kind of like a favour, eh?"
"Well……yes and no. We decided that we'll do this one for free and if business booms up because of us then we'll charge something good the next time."
"Oh, sounds like a fair deal."
As they walked, suddenly after a long way of quietness, they see a crowd. A huge crowd.
"You see, that's the kind of crowd that I want at our concert." He pointed towards the crowd near a seemingly quiet and insignificant garden.
Tyla nodded and concentrated hard to figure out the reason behind the crowd.
"Shall we go there and see what up?"
"Ah, yeah, I am curious too."
They both walked up to the crowd and could see a man waving to the crowd. Tyla gazed carefully and finally figured out who the man was.
It was him. Patrick James.
"Patrick James??" She said out loud.
"It's him?" Dan asked, surprised.
"Yep, it's him." A girl standing in front of them responded.