Nick kept looking at her face being awed and stupified. She looked as pretty as she looked in her social media images, unlike the majority of the population. People tend to resort to editing softwares to look good in photos because to edit their own face in real life using plastic surgery would be a much costlier option. But girls like Julia didn't need the editing softwares. To be honest, even the mobile cameras couldn't do justice to how pretty she looked in real life.
"Aren't you going to tell me to sit down?" She said smiling.
Nick immediately got up and said, "Yes, of course. Please sit down. I apologize..."
"Hey relax, it's okay." Julia laughed. "No need to get so worked up. I was just teasing you."
So typical of her! Nick thought. Just like she used to tease me back then!
As Julia settled down, Nick raised his hand and said, "Hey Danie...., I mean waiter!"
Daniel, Nick's co-worker, saw him and approached the table holding a notebook.
"If you know him, you should've called him by his name instead of switching to 'waiter'."
Nick was surprised himself for doing that unnecessary thing. But, now that he had done it, he felt uncomfortable about the whole situation.
He coughed into his fist and said, "I am a regular here. His name is Daniel. I know him."
Daniel arrived at their table and said, "Are you ready for ordering?"
"I am not really hungry," Nick said. "Just a cup of coffee."
"Same for me," said Julia.
"Great. Two cups of coffee," Daniel repeated the order without any need of jotting it down on the notepad.
He was about to leave, when he said to Nick, "Hey pal, I think you left something behind in the changing room the other room. Sydney was mentioning about it."
Nick bit his lower lip and said, "I know, Daniel. You can go now."
"Okay then. I will bring your coffee right now," Daniel said and left.
That stupid Daniel!
Julia smiled and said, "When you said you were a regular here, I thought you were a regular customer, not a regular worker."
"Yeah sorry for the misunderstanding. I am a part-timer."
What am I even doing? Why the hell am I making things unnecessarily awkward?
"So...." Nick said, "You are in college, huh?"
"Yep, studying social science. What about you?"
"I am doing Engineering. Electrical engineering." Nick said.
"Ooh, that's nice."
"Yeah, thanks."
Nick patted his thighs and looked around. "So, what do you like doing other than studying? I mean are you doing anything-"
"Yeah, I am a vlogger. I make videos about a wide range of topics and post them online."
"I know. I have seen a couple of them."
He had visited her blogging channel a few times before coming for the meeting. There were hour-long videos about cooking and make-up tips, which Nick did not have the patience to watch through. He doubted any sane person would watch such long videos until he looked at the number of viewers those videos had and felt like an alien.
"Oh, you have?"
"Yeah," Nick jerked his shoulders, "they came across while I was doing research on you."
Julia cleared her throat and said narrowing her eyebrows, "Doing what?"
Nick was too late to realize how weird that might have seemed to her.
"Doing research...I mean, it's been a while since we last interacted, so I was just checking you out on the internet, to know what you are doing lately."
Julia was staring at him without any reaction, so Nick continued, "I wasn't 'checking out' checking out, but you know, just getting to know your current life.... not in a creepy way though."
"That's cool."
"I was not stalking you. I am not a stalker."
"I understand," said Julia. "So what about you? What are you doing nowadays, other than studying? I did not do any 'research' on you, so...."
"Not much. Mostly studying and taking care of my sick mother." Nick picked up a glass of water that just arrived and emptied half of it.
"I am sorry. I shouldn't have asked that."
"No, that's okay. She will be fine. We are doing fine."
"Of course," said Julia. She briefly rubbed her forehead and said, "I saw your picture for the stage one. You seem to be some sort of artist. You body-painted on yourself."
"Oh no, that wasn't me," Nick promptly replied. "That was made by one of my friends. She is interested in art."
"A girl painted on your body," she said holding the glass of water.
"Yeah, but not in a kinky way. It was completely natural, I swear. Nothing weird happened between us"
Julia nodded and drank some water from the glass.
Nick shifted in his seat uncomfortably and said, "Why are they taking so long with the coffee?"
He looked around and found Daniel to be standing at the counter, holding the mug of coffee and smiling at them.
That bastard! He's having fun watching us!
As they locked eyes with each other, Daniel walked over to their table and poured coffee into two separate cups.
"Anything else you need?"
"That will be all," said Julia.
"I am fine too," said Nick.
"Enjoy your coffee," he said and winked at Nick before leaving.
"So, it's been a while, huh?" Nick said nervously.
Julia smiled at him.
"Remember the play we did together?"
"Yes. I was 'Margaret'."
"Miranda."
"Miranda, right. And you were-"
"Theodore."
"Yeah, that one."
A brief silence followed. They drank coffee in silence until Nick said:
"Remember the time we spent together. It was crazy back then. I can't believe it's been so long since then. Now we seem like two complete strangers. Somehow we lost the connection we had. We moved apart, got busy with our separate lives, and forgot to keep in touch with each other. I sometimes wonder how that happened."
Nick said that in a sad tone while fiddling with a spoon.
Julia looked away from him, perhaps to hide her embarrassment.
Nick suddenly touched her hand and said, "Hey, what happened to your birthmark?"
Julia immediately looked at her wrist and replied, "It disappeared somehow."
Nick removed his hand from her and felt a bit uneasy. He looked out of the window to the distant sky where the sun had disappeared behind the tall buildings leaving its last bit of radiance across the sky.
Her hand is warm. I touched her after so long!
He seemed to recall something funny and laughed lightly. Then he faced her again and said, "You know what the craziest part about our relationship was? It was the fact that I proposed to you and we still remained good friends. Of course it wasn't easy, hanging out with you suppressing my true feelings after being rejected by you so blatantly. You didn't show any mercy that day! After that, we pretended that it never happened and went along with the act. I don't know about you but it was just pretending for me when deep inside I had feelings for you. But still, I did not regret it. After all, I knew you would reject me even before I proposed to you. And why would you even accept my request when you were getting tons of proposals every single day? I was way out of your league, to be honest."
Julia remained silent, so Nick asked, "You remember that, don't you?"
Julia smiled this time. "Of course I do. And yes, it was pretty awkward afterward. I kind of figured out that you had feelings for me. But I never imagined you would propose to me like that. You took me by surprise. Nick, you were a good friend and that's how I wanted you to be. The friendship we had was real and important to me, so I couldn't afford to mess it up. Sorry if I hurt you by rejecting you."
Nick finished the remaining coffee with one giant sip and put the cup down with a thud, as if he had just finished a mug of beer. Then he wiped his mouth and gave her a mischievous smile.
"Julia, I had feelings for you, it's true. The feeling was so strong that I struggled to keep them concealed inside me. There were times when I almost gave in to the temptation, but I resisted. I wanted to propose to you, I wanted you to know how I felt about you, even though I knew what your answer would be, I still wanted to do it. But that's the thing, even though I knew what reality was, I didn't want to face it. I did not want to get rejected by you face to face. As long as I kept my feelings to myself, I would stay away from the harsh truth. There was a slightly possible scenario in my head where you agreed to go out with me. And I was happy with that much. So, I eventually abandoned the idea of asking you out."
He suddenly grabbed her hand, the one he had touched earlier. Julia winced in pain and struggled to release her hand.
"What are you doing?" she said in a loud voice.
Nick did not bother to listen to her. He said, "I never heard of anyone losing her birthmark so easily. Neither did I ever propose to you. So, who the hell are you?"