Is It All Over, My Love!

"Hi"

The message popped in the phone of Ayan. This message from Riya was quite unexpected. It had been ,now, several months since they broke up.

"Ayan, I will always think about you as a beautiful dream, but we cannot continue, I will never meet you again" Riya had said that day while they sat in the cafe drinking their favorite coffee.

"What do you mean" Ayan had blabbered. He was so startled that some coffèe spilled on the table. He placed the coffee mug on the table, his hand was shaking.

Riya had a stoic expression on her face. She looked unblinking with a far away look outside the cafe through the glass wall.

Ayan felt his heart throbbing, he was shaken and furious.

"You just can't walk away like this, we need to find a way" he spoke struggling with his choking voice.

Thick drops of tear dropped from Riya's big expressive eyes but the expression on her face continued to be unflappable.

"Now, what is this, you aren't speaking, we need to find a way out. This is absolutely not acceptable to me." Then as an afterthought, he declared " I will speak with your parents "

"You will not speak with them" Riya thundered. Several faces from the adjoining tables turned towards them. The normal murmuring of the cafe turned into a deafening silence for a moment.

Ayan held Riya's hand and they walked out of the cafe. Riya didn't object, she walked out mechanically.

Once outside, she broke into a bitter cry and said "I'm getting crushed between you and my parents, I don't know what to do. I cannot be the reason for my parents' disgrace. It is best that i separate from you and live the rest of life with an unhealed wound. I will not live - only survive"

Ayan took her in his embrace, wiped her tears and said looking at her deep black eyes "Look, I just can't imagine a life without you, but if you have made up your mind than I will respect your decision. But, why did the universe choose us for this suffering" he had tears in his eyes.

They wept bitterly in each other's arms.

Few moments later Riya pulled herself out of his embrace, wiped her face, ran her hands through her partially disheveled hairs and waved at a moving taxi. The taxi stopped with a screeching sound. Riya opened the door and slipped inside. Ayan watched her going away helplessly.

The taxi left, leaving behind a cloud of dark smoke. Did he see her waving at her from the window of the taxi or did he imagine.

Ayan sat on the pavement, oblivious of his surroundings, lost in his vague thoughts. He couldn't understand whether it was the pain of loss or the fear of a future life without Riya which rattled him. He sat there on the pavement, strolled in the street for several hours. He hammered his hand on the nearby tree bark. His hand ached, so did his heart. He waited hoping against hope that some miracle will bring back Riya. He also hoped that this sudden development be just a bad dream.

It had turned dark when he walked away with a heavy heart, all his hopes shattered.

As the days went by, he hoped and prayed that Riya would contact him, on several occasions he had almost called her and texted her but he controlled himself. If he really loved her then he should honor his promise. Love is after all not about getting united, giving up love itself is also great love. Ayan reasoned and dragged on with life.

Days turned into weeks and weeks to month. He didn't hear anything from Riya. Ayan was now getting convinced that his brief but beautiful love story has finally ended. He was trying to pull himself up. The desire to hear from her was now buried in the dark chambers of his heart.

And then, one day, out of nowhere, as if nothing had happened, he received this message from Riya.