A Coincidental Meeting

A Coincidental Meeting

Prolog

           “Keric,

I know you will be surprised to hear from me after all this time. It is important for me to finally come clean and tell you my side of why everything happened the way that it did. I know that my apology is coming late but I feel that I must make it now.

I will say, for now, that I am sorry for all the pain that I have caused you. It is my hope that enough time has passed that you can hear me out. If not, I will understand and not bother you again.

I will be at Café Martin on New Year’s Day. I am sure that you will have figured out by then who I am and what time I will be there

I am asking you to please come. “           

Chapter 1

           The morning dew on the grass seemed to shimmer in the sunlight. The sky was a light blue with whisps of pulled, white cotton scattered across it. Keri sat down on a stone bench in front of the local community college and set his shoulder bag on the ground in front of him. It felt good to relax after his early morning classes.

           “If you are going to ask me out, I am not interested,” Keric turned to the woman who was sitting next to him in surprise. Her brown eyes stared back at him with a serious expression.

           “I wasn’t going to,” he responded, his blue eyes a light with honesty.

           “Most men do,” she said simply. Keric could see why. She was beautiful with long, wavy, brown hair and dark eyes. Her waist was narrow, and her breasts were full. It was her smile that made her truly beautiful, however. It seemed to light up her face when she looked at him.

           “I’m Keric” he held out his hand. “I am not most men.”

           She shook his hand and quickly released it. Sparks seemed to fly between them at the simple touch. “I am Sunny, with a u. If you aren’t like most men, then I may come to be glad of it.”

           “It’s nice to meet you Sunny with a u,” Keric told her. “Is Sunny a nickname or short for something?” He was curious about this bold girl with a bright smile.

           “Nope. My given name is Sunny Ray,” she shook her head, her hair flying about her face. Don’t laugh. It could be worse. My twin brother’s name is Moon Beam. “

           For a few moments, Keric did not say anything. He just watched her silently with intense blue eyes, his blond hair waving about in the gentle morning breeze. He was trying to decide if she was just messing with him, or if her name really was Sunny Ray. Her dark eyes certainly looked serious. Then again who was he to judge another person’s name. Keric was a unique name, after all. He had never heard anyone else with it.

           “Why don’t you date?” he asked, deciding not to pursue the subject of her name any further.

           Sunny’s eyes grew slightly darker as she focused on something in the distance. Keric turned to see what she was looking at but could not tell for sure what it was. For a while, she did not say anything, and he wondered if she was going to answer his question.

           “I won’t be here very long,” she told him, finally. “There’s no point in me dating.”

 “I understand that” he smiled at her again. “But if I happen to be at Café Martin at one o’clock this afternoon and you happen to show up at the same time, then it would not be a date. It would just be a coincidence. Then if I were to see that you were there alone and ask you to share a table with me, it would still not be a date. It would just be two people who bumped into each other having something to eat while sitting at the same table.” Keric wasn’t sure when the idea had occurred to him, but he liked talking to her. She was bold and mysterious, and he wanted to spend more time with her.

           Sunny laughed at what he said, not sure if he was asking her on a date. It certainly sounded that way, even though he said it wasn’t. “Just a coincidence?” she asked, raising her eyebrows at him.

           “Of course,” Without another word, Keric stood up and walked towards the community college, his bag slung over his right shoulder.

Chapter 2

           “Are you ready to order yet,” a waitress approached Keric’s table in the half-empty Café Martin with a sympathetic smile. She had seen him come in a few minutes ago. It was obvious that he was waiting for someone. He was continuously glancing at the front door, then at his watch, and back again. She had waited to see if his date would show up but when he still sat alone, more than fifteen minutes later, the waitress figured that he was probably being stood up.

           “Give me a few more minutes,” Keric held up his cup of coffee and refilled it before moving on to chat with other customers. He picked his menu up from the scratched, white table and leaned back into the red booth, trying to look casual. There was no need for him to continue to look at the menu. He practically had it memorized by now and was just trying to keep himself distracted from constantly looking at the door.

           Keric’s stomach growled in protest. It seemed to say, “Give it up man. She’s not coming. Feed me already.”

           He was about to single the waitress when the bell above the door jingled. Keric looked up and was surprised to see her standing there. Sunlight pooled in through the glass door behind her, surrounding her in an almost ethereal light. Sunny glanced around the café and smiled when she spotted Keric sitting in a booth nearby. She walked over and slid into the seat across from him.

           “Sorry, my class ran late,” she told him with a smile. “I figured that it might actually be a coincidence if you were still here.”

           He returned her smile and handed her the menu, but she waved it away. “No need for that,” she told him. “Just order me whatever you’re having. I’m hungry so I will probably eat anything.”

           Keric singled the waitress over. He had no idea what Sunny liked so he just ordered them each a cheeseburger and fries. She did say that she wanted diet Coke to drink. “I’m not a big coffee drinker,” she looked away after she said it, and he wondered why she did.

           “What are you studying?” he asked her conversationally.

           “I haven’t decided,” Sunny replied, vaguely. “I am just taking basic courses for now. I still have time to decide. What about you?’

           “Journalism,” he did not tell her that his dream was to one day write a best-selling novel. Not even his parents knew that. Some dreams, he figured, were just too important to share with anyone else.

           “You want to be a reporter?” Sunny’s dark eyes widened with surprise. She looked as though she thought he might start asking her a bunch of questions that she could never answer.

           “Among other things,” Keric told her about all the places he wanted to go and the people that he hoped to meet one day. Sunny listened in quiet fascination, knowing that she could never go to any of the places he spoke of. She belonged at home, as her parents were always quick to remind her.

           The waitress brought out their food and they ate silently for a few minutes. It was nice to be together. They were strangers who became friends, if only for a few minutes. Sunny wasn’t free to pursue any sort of friendship with him or with anyone else. She could only enjoy his company for a few minutes and nothing more. She probably should not have even shown up at the diner but a part of her would always be glad that she had.

Chapter 3

           Their lunch at the diner had been fun and relaxing. Sunny had been careful not to share too much personal information with Keric. She let him do most of the talking. When he did ask her questions, she gave only vague answers. She did not want to encourage any sort of friendship between the two of them.

           After Sunny and Keric had finished their late lunch, they had stayed to chat for a few minutes longer. Since it was supposed to be just a coincidental meeting and not a date, she had insisted on paying for her own meal. Thankfully, he had not protested when she did so. He also did not ask to see her again. Sunny had hoped that it would be the end of things between them, but it wasn’t.

           The next day Keric passed by her as she was leaving the community college. He didn’t say anything as he slipped a folded piece of paper into the palm of her hand. Keric continued walking into the building.

           As soon as she was outside, Sunny sat down on a stone bench and unfolded the note. “It simply said, “Here’s to past and future coincidences”. He had drawn a surprising, good picture of Café Martin on the note as well. She smiled as she tucked the note in her pocket. She would allow herself to keep it for a little while.

           After the first note, Sunny continued to receive more notes from Keric. They told her funny jokes or mentioned certain places that he would be, in case she coincidently happened to be there at the same time. She loved the jokes. They always made her laugh. Though she kept each note, she never showed up where she knew he would be. She could not encourage him in any way. It would not be right. That did not stop him from continuing to slip her more notes.

           Two weeks after their lunch at the diner, Keric found himself staring out the window of his student apartment. He had long since given up on trying to pay attention to the movie playing on the television in front of him. His mind was on a dark-haired beauty with a dazzling smile. He barely knew her and yet he could not seem to stop thinking about her. The notes had started out as a game, a reason to see her smile as he secretly watched her read each one. Now it was becoming something more for him, something he could not put his finger on.

           Keric needed to get out, go for a walk. He threw on his jacket and stepped out into the cool night air. He hadn’t gone far when he spotted her walking towards him. This time their meeting really was coincidental. She looked up and noticed him at the same time, her eyes darkening in surprise. She did not turn away.

           As though in a trance, they walked towards each other. “I don’t date,” Sunny reminded him. He nodded his head. A heartbeat passed between them before he brought his lips to hers in a searing kiss. She whimpered in protest when he pulled away but silently followed him back to his apartment.

           Sunny should have turned and walked away from him, but she didn’t. She never should have followed him into his bedroom, but she did. Their clothes fell away, and she allowed herself to be caught up in him. Just this one night. A moment to last her for a lifetime. Nothing more, she promised herself.

Chapter 4

           A moment was not enough for either of them. Sunny allowed herself more moments that were not at all coincidental. Keric took her all over their small college town and showed her places and things she never even knew existed. At night they went back to his apartment and made love with wild abandonment. They skipped classes and their grades suffered because of it but neither one of them seemed to care.

           It was as though they both understood, somewhere in the recesses of their mind that their time was limited. Sunny had told Keric in the beginning that she would not be there long but he either did not remember or chose not to think about it. He just wanted to be with her.

If only Sunny could forget but she never could. Many times, she started to tell him. If only she could explain it all to him. Maybe he would understand. She could not bring herself to do so. It would only spoil what they had, and she wanted to hang onto it for as long as she could.

Then one day, a month after they had made love for the first time, Sunny was gone. There was no reason, no explanation. Her cellphone was out of order and no one in the college would tell him where she had gone. She had come into Keric’s life bringing so much light and sunshine into it that when she left darkness filled his days. Sunny was gone and he had no idea why.

Epilog

           Keri was there on New Year’s Day. He entered Café Martin at 1:20 pm, the exact time she had shown up for their coincidental meeting that had never really been a coincidence, after all. He did not know why he was there, five years later, just as he did not know why he had pursued her in the first place. Maybe he was just looking for the answers she could not give him all those years ago.

           Sunny’s dark hair was a bit shorter now. It framed her face in a way that highlighted her high cheekbones and made her features seem a bit more delicate, a bit more beautiful. She gave him a nervous smile when he approached her booth and slid into the seat across from him.

           “You came,” she was not surprised. Somehow, she had known that he would.

           Keric shrugged, “It was just a coincidence. I guess we were both hungry at the same time.” They both knew that he wasn’t talking about food. He was hungry for answers, and she was finally ready to give them to him.

           “I never set out to hurt you,” Sunny began, looking deep into his sapphire blue eyes. “I told you that I did not date. What I should have said was that I could not date. I was already promised to someone else. I was given two months of freedom to go and experience life as a normal college student.”

           She looked down at the table and softly continued. “Then I had to make a choice. I could remain free, or I could return home and obey my father’s wishes to marry who he had chosen for me. I loved you, Keric. I cherished every moment that we spent together. In the end, I choose honor over love. I couldn’t even bring myself to say goodbye to you. I am sorry.” Tears fell from her eyes and rolled down her cheeks as she finally looked up at him again.

           “You could have talked to me,” Keric told her. He had been in love with her too, but he hadn’t told her then and he did not tell her now.

           Sunny wiped at her tears, but they continued to fall. “I couldn’t,” she admitted. “It had to be my choice to stay or go. I could not allow you to influence, me in any way”

           “Why come back now and apologize?” He did not sound bitter. Too much time had passed for him to be so. Part of him still loved what they had shared but he understood now why it had ended. Not that it brought him much comfort.

           “The man whom I married was very abusive,” Sunny admitted bitterly. “My parents blamed me. They said that it was up to me to honor my husband and make my marriage work. Divorce is not an option in my family.

           “I couldn’t stay, however,” her eyes darkened with fierce determination as she continued. “I realized that I had put my honor in the wrong hands. It took me years to finally get up the courage to leave. When I finally did my parents disowned me. I did not care. I was finally almost free.”

           “Almost?” Keric questioned.

           She slowly nodded her head. “I could never truly be free until I admitted to you why I had left. I know that my apologies are coming five years too late, but I truly am sorry.”

           “Now what will you do?” he asked her. There was no room for anger, though he would have had a right to feel it. She had gone through too much for him to justify feeling anger towards her.

           “You once told me about all of the places you wanted to travel,” Sunny smiled, and her eyes brightened again. “I think now I will go and visit them.”

           They stood up and he hugged her. Then she turned and walked out of his life for a second time. Only this time he knew why. Their relationship had been short and sweet. It had never been meant to last a lifetime, not then and not now.