Emma appears from nowhere. She is standing right in front of the shop. She is smiling at him mischievously.

He looks at her intently, investigating what she is up to. 

She breaks the silence, 'Hello, how are you?'

'I am well, and you?' His face was very serious. He knew her quite well, he thought.

After observing the cold shoulder he was giving her, she brushed it off with her own excuse, 'I am fine, I am here to meet up with Anna. She will be coming soon.'

Anna is a friend to Emma who lived nearby, whom James knew pretty well. He questioned her excuse in his mind, for he knew that the two were not that close, and she had spoken negative things about Anna when the two were still together. He wondered what had changed. Anyway, it was none of his business, he had other important matters to attend to, so he wouldn't dwell on such petty things.

'Okay.' Without giving a fussy about it.

He turned and proceeded to do his work in the shop. James and Emma were dating until she started misbehaving. He cut contact with her. She broke his heart, uncountable times. He always forgave her, but she kept on repeating the same thing over and over again.

James is one person who has developed his spiritual antenna, so if he gets into a relationship, the woman he is with cheats on him, he can feel what that person is doing even when that person is far away and that troubles him a lot. It's like a thorn in the flesh, that feeling of being cheated has broken his heart and soul countless times.

Because of these uncontrollable energies he experiences, he decided to end the relationship with her. Blocked her number and when she calls him on a different number, the moment he figures out that it's her, he cuts the call. Now, she is here, right in front of him. What will really happen? He is still ignoring her. She is really trying hard to capture his attention. 

'How is your life?' She has to use a different method if these other tricks aren't working. 

'It has been good mostly, just trying to be the best of me.' Still not paying any attention to her, to him, it's like she does not exist. In other words, she is dead to him as far as he is concerned. She could feel his coldness, it was evident that he did not have anything to do with her. 

She makes a request that not any normal human being in this world can deny the other being, 'Can I have water from your tap?'

It's just water. James wouldn't give a fuss about it.

He absently minded permits her, without pondering much about it, 'Sure, help yourself.'

She opens the door to the shop and walks to the kitchen to drink water. After she finishes, she walks toward the room inside the shop where James is. She looks awkward and expresses a bit of shame. To cover it up, she cooks up another, dubious move, 'Can I sit for a while inside here, where it is hidden from my family members? I don't want them to know that I was here.'

Her extended family members lived in the same community as James.

He glanced at her with curious eyes. He thought about her request for about thirty seconds before saying, 'Sure,' and resumed reading on his mini laptop. By this time, he knew exactly her intentions, which he was not going to entertain or to let her penetrate through his defense mechanism.

James had already discerned her coming. He had a dream about her. When he woke up, a strange sensation of her kept creeping into his mind and heart. Her appearance is not a surprise, because a certain part of him expected this. He looks calm on the outside, but inside he is trembling. His emotions are not stable right now. Fire is completely burning him up inside out. And he has many questions.

Why is she here? Maybe she has changed? Maybe she has realized her mistakes, and wants to make up for them?

She keeps staring at him from time to time, hoping to have eye contact with him.

She made up her mind to speak, 'I have been thinking about us so much the past days. Honestly, I really don't know what drives me to do certain things. Above all, I want you to know that you mean a lot to me. You know, that I don't have many friends. After my sister deserted me, you are the only one. I humbly apologize, from the depth of my heart, for all the wrongs and pain I have caused you. If you don't want a relationship with me, it is fine, but don't cast me out as your friend. I really have many regrets, but one thing is true, I have always loved you. You are even the first man to enter my parent's house and my family knows that.'

James was still silent, looking at her without emotion.

She pleads with begging eyes and emotions, 'Please, say something?'

Technically, James has never stopped loving Jasmine. But the feeling of hurting him is really strong, and kills him from the inside.

James was still, and voiceless. She started sobbing, and tears welled up in her eyes. Finally, she cried loudly for a few minutes. He was just there, observing her and not knowing what to say? But his heart was relenting.

'I am sorry for coming. I will never bother you again.' She got up and started going. 

James's heart was ripped apart the moment she was walking away, and mixed emotions took over. When she walked about ten yards away from the shop, he called her with a thunderstorm voice.

'Emma, Emma!' He raised his voice, so violently such that she was stricken, became scared and ceased. Like a corpse.

'Come back here, now?'