Chapter-3

“Mrs. Army! Mrs. Army, God bless you! You are still here.” Miranda rushed over to the middle-aged woman who was busy arranging a bunch of papers on her desk.

The older woman looked up with a stunned expression as Miranda jogged to her, out of breath.

“Breathe, girl, breathe.” Laughed Sheira Army, putting a kind hand on Miranda’s shoulder.

“I am so sorry. The boss had told me to inform you to stay back for the business meeting on fourth floor, but I dozed off at my desk. I was so worried that you might have left. The boss would probably have had my head for lunch if it would have happened.” Miranda was out of breath again, struggling with the words. She placed her hand over her heart, trying to calm down in the process.

“I wouldn’t have let him do that, would I now?” Sheira smiled. She put her bunch of papers on her work desk and looked up.

Walking back to the reception counter, Miranda heaved a sigh of relief, got seated and started to think of less stressful things like grocery. Which reminded her that she was supposed to do the grocery today. Damn! Mom would be so mad by now.

The phone ringing at her desk snapped her out of her momentary stance, bringing her back to present. Clearing her throat, she picked up the receiver.

“Houston and Joelle’s. How may I help you?” Miranda chanted mechanically.

“Oh, you can help me by joining me and Kevin for supper tonight. And do dress your best because I have got you a date.”

“Crap! Dina, are you nuts? I will get fired if my boss hears about this!” Miranda’s voice dropped into a hush as she frantically searched around to make sure no one was eavesdropping. Apparently, no one was.

“I called you. I sent you voice messages and text messages. No reply.” Dina grumbled on the other side, offended.

Miranda looked around again, running her eyes over her co-workers. No one was watching.

“Call you later.”

Putting down the receiver, she breathed more easily. Seconds after her terminal shock, she quickly dug into her bag and flipped open her cell phone. Seventeen missed calls. Three voice messages. Eight text messages.

Miranda went for the text messages. She can keep the missed calls and voice messages for later.

First one was from her mother.

“Your dad did grocery. Bought me a pretty white blouse too. No need to stop at the mall. Love, Mom. J”

Miranda smiled and moved to the next one. This was from Dina, of course. So were the next four.

“Y wont u pick up d damn phone? L”

“Supper at 8. My residence. With Kevin n Dan. Wear dat pretty black dress. ;)”

“Babe, u r testing my patience. Yes or no?”

“M calling u. On ur work phone. Stop me if u can.”

“Dan is a rlly good guy. Trust me, u will find him a lot better than d other guy. And he has got good taste in music. I showed him ur pic n he has gone crazy.”

Miranda rolled her eyes. She was really tired of the way Dina had been trying to set her up since Michael left.

The last two messages were from an unknown number. Curious, Miranda opened them up.

“Hi. Dan here. Sorry, I cudnt stop myself from taking ur number. U have a rlly cute smile and I am rlly excited to meet u up at supper 2nite. Rlly want to knw u more.”

Too many ‘rlly’s in one text.

“Hope u aren’t mad at me 4 taking ur number. U r so beautiful. Maybe we can hang out someday. Get to know each other. Wat do u say? Savvy? XD”

One look at the texts and Miranda could tell they would never ‘click’. None of the ‘you are so pretty’ ever worked on her. Miranda was always into guys who knew how to maintain their self-respect while falling for a girl. Michael was like that. Intense and mysterious. He liked keeping things to himself. When she first started thinking about him, she was so unsure about how he felt about her. He was always so reserved. Never giving in to feelings. Even when he walked her to her house, he avoided the constant hand-holding that couples in love usually do. It was beautiful because it was uncertain. She was uncertain if he saw her the same way she saw him. It was that one crazy day, when while paying for the coffee, a piece of paper dropped from his wallet. She had picked that up, hoping he would make a grab for it. But he never did. He stood there, stunned, his teal eyes slightly worried. Curiosity played its part and there was this short note that cleared everything.

It read:

“I hope I can be everything you deserve, Miranda. I am so sorry, but I think I have fallen for you.”