"Seriously? You are going to give me this silly excuse?"
"It is not a silly excuse, life just happened."
"I have sent you letters when you were in Stanford and you didn't reply to even one of them."
"Oh, really? I never received them." She lied, she got those letters and she had the urge to reply back to him but she couldn't forget what happened at their prom and after recollecting it, she decided to not respond to them as she did not have the energy or courage to get hurt by him again.
"What? Seriously?" Steve was surprised to know she didn't receive the letters. In the first year he sent many letters to her and then the frequency of his letters decreased but yet every year he ensured to send her a letter on her birthday.
After joining college, he never went back to the town where they used to live as his parents were in New York and he was staying with his grandpa when he was in the high school and after he left for his college his grandpa shifted with his family in Washington DC and he therefore never visited the town again and just like what Erica said, life happened, during his college vacations he used to work at his father's firm as he was being prepared to take over their business in the future and after his studies he once went to the town where his high school is but he got to know Erica and her family moved away from here two years back.
He asked all their friends and classmates about Erica's whereabouts but they too had no idea where she was as she never stayed in contact with everyone.
Then he too got busy with the business and although he always remembered her he couldn't find her, after a point he understood she didn't want to meet him as she not once responded to his letters so he never used his contacts to find her and let life take its course.
He was therefore happily surprised when he actually met her coincidentally but her cold behavior was an indication that there was something that was bothering her and she intentionally lost contact with him and therefore confronted her but when he got to know his letters never reached her, he got frustrated and cursed himself for not using his contacts to find where his best friend is.
"Hmm I never received any letters" Erica answered him.
"Fuck fuck fuck" Steve started shouting like a mad man.
Erica got worried seeing his reaction.
" OH God ! Erica, I am so sorry, what an idiot I am" He again cursed himself.
"What happened Steve?"
"When you never responded to my letters I thought you were intentionally avoiding me so I didn't use my contacts to search for you after you left Stanford. I had no idea where you went after your studies, if I used my connections I could have easily found you but I wanted to respect your decision so I sent only letters and never approached you. But now I realized what a fool I am, I never thought of the possibility of those letters not reaching you. I am so sorry Erica"