Chapter-12
Amelia smiled as Carlitos returned to their table with two glasses in his hands. She stared at the deep pink liquid he set before her.
“What is it?”
"Mixed fruit juice...I err...wasn’t very sure which flavour you preferred, so...” She tuned him out.
Mixed fruit juice.
How could a simple thing like that trigger such an avalanche of memories?
When she had asked Lucius to let her go two months ago, she had been sure that she would be denied. To her surprise though, he had understood. There had been no contact between them for these last couple of months- no voice in her head to hold private conversations with.
“You don’t mind, do you?”
She barely heard Carlitos, making him repeat his question. She looked at him blankly before shaking her head. He smiled affably at her, his prominent buck-tooth incisors grazing his lower lip.
She felt her own lips widen in response.
His smile must be infectious. She thought to herself, and was abruptly glad that unlike Lucius, Carlitos could not hear her thoughts. She wondered what his reaction might have been to a comment like that.
She was not with Lucius now. So, why was she thinking of him?
Not thinking, she answered herself. Comparing.
With his floppy dirty-blond locks and chubby cheeks; Carlitos could never hope to rival Lucius’ chiselled features. Neither did he possess that aura; but then again, Carlitos never engendered volatile emotions in her either.
She liked mild-mannered Carlitos. They had known each other for almost as long as they had lived, but knowing that she was already spoken for, he had never dared to ask her out. Things changed however, now that she was back again. Especially, since she was still not wearing any engagement ring. Emboldened, he had asked her out tonight.
Amelia sighed, if her parents had been disappointed by her ‘still single’ status, they hid it well.
Mia, I will be waiting for the day you return. Lucius’ parting words continued to haunt her. She had asked him not to. After all, how could she; when she did not even know if she would return.
Now, her mind was silent.
But, she still had no peace.