CHANCE

Fast-paced typing was heard as Michelle was typing a project proposal that she had been working on for the past few months. She was in a state of deep focus and concentration that distracted her from the sounds of the buzzing city of Janeson. As she took a sip from her coffee mug her phone rang and she looked at the caller ID and the identity is unknown, she decided to ignore the call. It rang once again, this time, still concentrated on the project, she rolled her eyes and answered the call.

“Sorry I am not looking to buy anything.”She said without letting the caller get a single word in.

“I was not looking to sell.”A familiar male voice answered.

“Lance?”She asked taking her hands off of the keyboard of her laptop.

“The one and only.”

“I never thought I would hear your voice again. How is it going in North Hamper?”

“Well, last week there was a meteor strike that leveled the entire village an-”

“Haha very funny.”She said with a small smile on her face.

“Okay, it’s just been cold and the snowstorms. You know how the snowstorms are.”

“They were the absolute worse. ……is Jenny still trying to get her cafe up?”

“You mean Jenny’s Daily Grind.”He said with a dramatic pause.

“Ah, I see what you did there. So she named it after herself after all.”

“She told me that you were resistant to the idea at first, I thought it was clever and I could use it as a joke one day.”He said with a soothing tone.

“How’s your film coming along.”She asked making sure that their conversation flowed.

“I am looking at it right now with hours of unedited footage I’m not sure when I will get all of this done.”

“You don’t have an editor.”

“ Films are expensive projects after all. I had to cut the costs of some crew members.”He said with a strangled tone,” but nevermind my life, how is it there in the big bustling city?”

“Everyone here is always working and things move so fast it’s crazy.”She paused as if deciding to say what next,” There is a chance I could get promoted.”

“Really? You are doing big things out in the city . Next time I call I will hear that you are the senior editor in chief of Glory Media.”He said cheerfully.

“Next time?…..are you planning …….to call me again?”

An eerie silence breaks between them as the reality of their situation is brought out by her strangled words.

“I am sorry…..I shouldn’t-“Michelle starts.

“No, it’s fine. You shouldn’t apologize for asking a question.”

“It just that after you said you would come to visit ….then you said you are busy with directing the movie……Then you sent emails saying the time will be extended for production….Then I stopped getting emails…..Then I didn’t hear from you again.”

Silence envelopes them one again but that time around the silence was louder than before.

“I wanted to visit. Then I just got caught up with work and then……“

“Then I became irrelevant in your life right?”

“I never meant to do that.”He said with guilt being heard in his voice.

“But you did anyway.”She said her voice filled with sadness.

The silence got even louder than before to a point it could be identified as noise.

“Michelle,” Lance said without coming up with something to say afterward.

“I am being petty……I’m sorry-“

“Stop apologizing!”He shouts over the phone.

Michelle looked in the distance in disbelief with her tears forming around her eyes giving them a dramatic glassy effect.

“What I’m I supposed to do then? No better yet what should have I done back then, Should have I never left when I was given this great opportunity?”

“I just want you to hear me out.”

“I am trying to …..but whenever I open the way you don’t say anything th-“

“I am just!..”He said calming himself down,” I am just looking for the right words to say. That is……..that’s what I have been trying to do for months now.”

“You wanted to talk to me?”

“Yes, but the longer I waited……. the scarier it became. It felt wrong to just pop up into your life all of a sudden and pretend that everything was great…….but I never knew what else to do.”

“Then why today?”

“Yesterday night I was with someone ……..”He said pausing to gather the correct words to say,” Before anything intimate happened, I suddenly declared that I have a partner ….”He said sadly pausing once again,” I wanted to know if that fact still holds up.”

Another silence hit them with a hint of confusion the sounds multiply with joy, sadness, confusion, stress, and love being emitted through them.

“That’s why you called?”She asks in shock.

“Yes.”

“It’s been two years.”

“It doesn’t matter how long it’s been. .”

“Last time it didn’t work how will things be different now?”

“That time we were broke and we had to find any means to survive, we were surviving then but now—“

“We were happier when we were just surviving, weren’t we?”

“We were.”He answered with his previous momentum stopped.

“So will we have to go back to surviving just to make the relationship work?”

The silence between them suddenly became softer as the two of them seem to communicate clearly.

“Are you happy now?”Lance asks.

“Yes.”

“Really?”He asks.

“Yes. I finally have what I had been working for.”

“What were you doing before I called you?”

“I was writing up a project proposal.”She said plainly.

“And tomorrow?”

“Work as usual…… I have a job after all.”

“And what will you did after that proposal?”

“If it’s approved I work on it, if not I make a new proposal as I manage the other projects. You know h0w jobs work.”

“And are you happy?”

“Are you trying to tell me, how I am supposed to live my life?”

“Not that’s not what I am suggesting……Filming ended a few days ago and do you know how that made me feel.”

“What are you excited for the next big thing or did you already start working on the new project or did you realize that it wasn’t your dream after all or-”

“I felt nothing. Of course, I was happy at the moment we finished and we gave my farewells to the crew but that was only a momentary feeling. When I got the funding for the film I finally felt like I could live my life and make a great project and be a changed man but I didn’t.”He says with a painful pause, ”The only thing that made surviving seem like absolute joy was that I wasn’t alone …and I lost that. Michelle, I don’t regret pursuing my career, I regret doing it without you and I regret not being there as you were pursuing yours.”

Michelle remains silent after the statement for one of the first times speechless.

“I will ask you again are you happy?”Lance asks once again.

Michelle stared at her laptop with a million thoughts running across her mind as teardrops left the side of her eye. For the first time, the silence was quiet. A knock is heard on the door that breaks the silence and once again the bustling sounds of Janeson are heard.

“Sor…Lance I have to go.”She said hanging up.

She looked at her laptop as she wiped her cheeks with the sleeves of her sweater. She walked over to the door trying to compose herself.

“Who is it?”She asked holding the door handle still distraught from the phone conversation.

“I’m sorry.”

“You …….you came?”She asks turning pale.

“I’ve made my choice. What’s yours?”Lance asks.