Part 5 - The Truth Hurts

"Hey baby, I'd love to meet up tonight. :) Sorry about the other day. Something came up. Say 7pm@delicious? Love you. :)"

That was all the text message had read. He agreed in reply and hoped that this time it would not be cancelled at the last minute again. It was six weeks since that night at Starbucks, and a brilliant six weeks at that. They felt like college kids again. They went for movies, dinners and lunches whenever they could. They'd sneak dates between meetings, all the time in each others arms, madly in love as if they were catching up for lost time, not wanting to miss any spare moment being in each others arms. All they did was look into each others eyes in silence and whisper sweet nothings into each others ear, then kiss, and the sex was amazing! It was as if they were in another world. A world where whenever they were together time stopped and they were caught in the past. Everything felt like they had never left each other for the last thirteen years. It was an overwhelmingly surreal feeling and they both felt it. They could see it in each others eyes. And tonight will be no different. They would have dinner, sip on some wine and talk about the past, the present and on recent occasions the future was mentioned.

Delicious was a café started in a modest boutique by a local designer. It was a hit with the ladies serving modern contemporary cuisine with Malaysian influences to feed the taste buds of locals and foreigners alike. It was such a hit that in just three years it became Kuala Lumpur's leading modern contemporary restaurant with three branches throughout the capital. The outlet they had reservations with was their latest branch in a new wing of a mall. The interior was chic, smart, funky yet classy with good use of contours and angles. It had a clinical, clean finish of whites and hints of aqua, turquoise and blue. Smart use of space made for a long white sofa up along the length of the contoured wall splitting the restaurant into the smoking and non-smoking sections. They both smoked so it was the former section that they had reserved a table in.

"I have a question. Why didn't you come to the airport that day?" Jasmine asked after the waitress had taken their orders.

Matt looked at her for a moment, deliberating whether it was time to reveal how deep he felt for her.

"Because it was too painful to see you go", he said.

"C'mon, it couldn't have been that bad. We were friends for less than two years", she replied.

"Do you really wanna know babe?" Matt asked.

"Yes, of course I do. It was something that I always thought about when I was away".

He looked up to face her, put his cigarette down in the ashtray in front of them, took a deep breath, and said:

"Because I loved you from the moment I met you. I loved everything about you, everything! And I was crushed when you told me that you were leaving that I couldn't bring myself to see you go. But I still couldn't tell you because I was afraid of making a fool of myself, afraid that I wasn't good enough for you. I love you as much now as I did that first day".

It was off his chest and he was, in a way, relieved. It took her by complete surprise. She never knew that he felt this deeply for her and that he still did to this day.

"Wow, I never knew you felt that way baby", Jasmine said, lighting a cigarette. Her face now had a slightly concerned expression.

"Is there something wrong? Did I say too much?"

"No baby, I'm glad, really I am and I love you too", she smiled trying to hide her growing concern.

"Is there something wrong babe?", he asked, but he never saw it coming.

"Well, the reason I wanted to see you tonight was to discuss something babe, and this is probably not the best time for it but, I didn't know how to tell you sooner."

He looked puzzled and then perched up slightly to pay attention to this sudden change of mood. He was edgy and slightly nervous at the way this conversation was heading but never, for the life of him, did he see it coming.

"I'm married baby. I'm sorry", she couldn't even look at him.