"Leo, hi. What are you doing here?" She asked, a little bit shaken.
"You look surprised, is it wrong for me to check up on the girl I love?" He questioned with a smile.
She exhaled deeply before giving an answer. "No, not at all."
Leo held her hand up, looked at the watch then at her. Ammika's heart raced. "I've never seen you with this, where'd it come from?"
Although every inch of her body was feeling Hiram's eyes on her, she still wanted to turn and confirm if he was watching but couldn't. "Does it really matter?" She posed dismissively.
"It's really beautiful." He told her brushing his fingers on it. "Looks quite expensive."
"Some random guy I served gifted it to me." She said in a low tone, hoping the 'random guy' wouldn't hear her.
"An admirer of yours?" He teased, laughing softly. "Anyway, I dropped in to tell to come home early, I have a surprise for you."
"What kind of surprise?" She asked, her curiosity piqued.
"If I told you then it wouldn't really be a surprise would it?" He leaned in for a kiss. "See you at home." He told her when their lips parted.
She exhaled before turning to Hiram only to find him gone, she quickly looked up and rushed her eyes all over only to spot him disappear into the crowd.
"Fuck!" She cursed under her breath before she picked up his glass and the cash under it.
"Everything okay Ammie?" Klara asked reading face.
"I think Hiram might hate me." She said with a deep sigh.
"Why would he?"
Klara was her best friend, she had long sworn never to lie to her, she wasn't planning on starting now. "Leo asked about the watch Hiram gave me and I might have told him a random guy gave it to me."
"Ouch!" Was all Klara could say.
"Oh, come on Klara, it's not like I could tell him Hiram Michaelson gave it to me." Ammika cried. "I think you know how that would go."
"I honestly don't know what to say. I'm sure he'll come by tomorrow, you could talk to him then." Klara told her before they both returned to their serving.
****
He was on phone with his sister, Callie, walking towards the parking lot after his classes. A few yards behind, Trisha hurried her steps to catch up with him and walked next to him.
"Hey you," she greeted a minute later after he had finished up with his sister.
"Hey Trisha, its been a minute." He replied.
"It definitely has." She agreed. "Almost seems like you're avoiding me." She added.
She was right, he was avoiding her but he was not going to admit that to her, or to himself for that matter. Normally when people break up, they go their separate ways, most cutting off ties completely, but that was not who Hiram was. His personality could not let him do that to her so he had let them be friends. There was nothing wrong with that, was there?
"Why would you think that?" He asked, forcing a laugh. "I promise you I'm not."
She didn't go on about it. She didn't know when she would get a chance to see him again so she decided to go straight to reason why she was there.
"I called your house yesterday," she started. "Was told you were out."
"I had stepped out to clear my head." He explained.
"Everything okay?" She asked, genuinely worried. She still cared about him, deeply in fact.
"Yeah, dad and I just had a little disagreement." He answered as they came to a stop next to her car.
She looked nervous, he noticed and was about to comment but she spoke first. "Hiram," she called softly, raising her eyes to meet his. "I think we need to talk about us. We haven't really talked about what happened."
"What do you mean?" He had not expected her to bring something like that up, especially considering their breakup happened a while back.
"Do you not see a need for us to talk? Neither of us has really moved on. I think it's pretty obvious that we are still attracted to each other." She mentioned.
"Trisha," he paused for a long while, deep in thought. "I haven't moved on because there is so much going and you know this. Moving on and being in a relationship at the moment will just overwhelm me more than I already am." He explained.
"I'll wait for you Hiram," she said softly. "For however long-"
He didn't let her finish.
"I don't want you to wait for me Tri, I want you to move on, I want you to be happy." He advised.
"You make me happy Hiram, and… I don't wanna move on if it's not with you. I can't move if it's not with you." Her eyes were starting to water. It was hard for her to hear him tell her to move on with someone new. How could she, he was her one true love, her soulmate.
"Of course you can Tri, you just have to-" It was her turn to interrupt him.
"Don't tell me what I have to do. What's so hard in us getting back together?" She wondered.
"It's not that simple." He confessed.
"But it is, at least to me. Hiram we were happy together, we were perfect for each other, our love was beautiful." She reminded him.
"Yeah, we were." He agreed. How could he not? It was true, their love and relationship had been a beautiful one, had been a magical one. "But that's over now. We can't go bac-" She cut in.
"I don't wanna hear it Hiram, so please just stop." She said, wiping away a tear rolling down from her right eye. "Do you still love me?"
She was convinced he did. You just don't un-love someone like that, not if you were truly in love with them. He loved her, deeply for that matter and often made effort to make her aware of that fact, she didn't want to believe that kind of love had just vanished into thin air.
She looked into his eyes, she hoped his eyes would scream, 'Yes! Yes, I do love you.' But they didn't, they said the opposite. That broke her. She prayed that his mouth says something different, she really did because the thought of having lost him forever was too dreadful.
"Trisha I-" She suddenly cut in. She had already gotten her answer.
"Don't." She told him. She didn't want to hear it. She didn't wanna hear him tell her he didn't love her. It would be too painful hearing it come from his mouth. There was no telling how she'd react to that.
The tears she had fought so hard to hold back managed to break free blurring her vision. She got into her car, slamming the door shut and letting it all out. How could he? He loved her, didn't he?