05

After the party, Ethan had dropped off Liza to her home and headed towards his place. He lived alone in a high end penthouse in the center of the city.

He quickly changed his clothes and got fresh. And settled in front of his laptop.

He opened his personal email, he hadn’t checked it in a while and there was one heck of emails for him from friends and extended family.

One email caught his attention. It was from an old friend from college, Jake. Jake McCarthy. They were in the same department and had done some uncanny things during their college days. The email contained a wedding invitation. Jake’s wedding.

Suddenly, Ethan’s memories went back to his college days. And how it was. He was a free man who had made most of his college days fun and dreamt about a future, with photography and….. Arthur.

Although he was able to reach one, he was dejected to know he couldn’t or didn’t have another one.

Contemplating about his possibilities to attend the wedding, he closed the laptop. He wasn’t sure if he was going to attend the wedding. What if Arthur was attending the wedding too? What if Arthur had moved on? What if Arthur had his own family now? The very thought of Arthur having a family of his own scared the shit out of Ethan.

The college sweethearts had parted ways on a bad term. Ethan didn’t know if he wanted to attend the wedding and put himself in an embarrassing or disappointing position.

He closed his eyes and tried to get some sleep. He had a very early day to catch tomorrow.

An early morning shoot was scheduled at MIXTURE. And Ethan had picked the project for himself a few months back.

He was early at the studio and only Liza was present. Since she was the manager of the studio, so she had to come to work earlier than the other employers.

“Morning,” Ethan said lazily. He wasn’t in his usual self. Last Night’s email and the incident at Vanessa’s parents’ party was still bugging him. He was least bothered about to know if anyone had put in words to the media.

“Morning, what happened to you? You look tired,” Liza said preparing for the shoot.

“I am tired,” he left out an enormous sigh.

“That bad?”

“Something like that,”

While they were having the conversation, some people entered the studio. From Liza’s knowledge, they were Vanessa’s assistants.

They went to the vanity room and prepared for the shoot.

Just then, Vanessa entered the studio. Liza and Ethan both had turned their heads towards her. She had a puffed up face and eye bags. Anyone who saw her could tell the girl had cried her eyes out.

Liza went to her and spoke, “Hey.”

Vanessa looked Liza and smiled lightly, “Hi.”

“Are you okay?”

“Not really.”

“Do you want to reschedule the shoot or anything?” Liza was genuinely concerned about Vanessa’s state. She looked like a ghost.

“No. No. Let’s finish it soon. I want to go back home.”

Liza nodded her head and went back to her previous work.

Ethan asked, “Is she ok?”

“I don’t think so. She seemed to have cried herself to sleep last night.”

Ethan sighed and closed his eyes. Vanessa and the wedding invitation was messing in his head. He didn’t know what to do.

He went out for a quick smoke and by the time he was back at the studio, everything was set and Vanessa was ready too. She looked beautiful. She is a beautiful girl, only just a little spoiled.

Ethan took his camera and got into the position.

Vanessa gave her best poses and the work was done in no time. And the shoot was wrapped up.

Everyone in the studio cheered for the successful shoot.

Vanessa was packing her personal bag when Ethan entered the room.

She just looked at him and didn’t speak anything.

“I’ll drop you home,” he said and disappeared from the room.

Vanessa followed him to his car and got seated and fastened the seatbelt.

Ethan drove towards her home. The city had a bad traffic today.

They were momentarily stopped at the traffic signal, Ethan turned to see Vanessa leaning onto the window and had dozed off.

He continued to drive with a heavy heart. He never meant to hurt her. He never meant to make her this weak.

When Vanessa felt the car wasn’t moving, she opened her eyes and noticed they were already at her home.

She unbuckled the seatbelt and said, “I am sorry I didn’t know we had reached. You should’ve woke me up.”

Ethan didn’t tell anything, he put his hand on top of hers. She looked up at him.

“I'm sorry. I really didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“It's okay. I should’ve backed away when you said you weren’t interested in me.”

“No. Don’t blame yourself for this. I am the one who is at fault. I should’ve made you aware of me properly.”

Vanessa looked at his eyes. He was very sincere with his apology.

She nodded her head, “It’s fine. I’ll be fine. I just need some time to digest it.”

“Take your time. I don’t want to have any bad air between us. I hope we can go back to our early selves when we started to work together. I want to have a good relationship with you. You are very close to my heart, just not in the way you want to. I want to treasure the people who have come along with me on my career journey. You mean a lot to me. Please don’t be sad. You are a very beautiful girl and I’m sure there will be someone who will love you the way you deserve to be loved.”

Vanessa had tears rolling down her cheeks. And her sobs were pretty audible.

Ethan brushed her cheeks and wiped away her tears.

“I hope we can continue to share a good relationship too,” Vanessa intoned.

“Then we’ll work on that. Okay?”

Vanessa nodded her head.

Ethan got out of the car and opened the passenger side’s door.

She got out and turned to him.

“You want to come up for lunch?” she asked expectedly.

He smiled and said, “Sure.”

They walked inside her house.

Ethan had decided to take things one at a time. Now he only wanted to concentrate on Vanessa. He really wanted to have her in his life. She was always there with him since the beginning of his career, just like Liza was. She was really close to his heart in his own way, not the one she wanted to. He thought he had to put in more effort to make her feel better and treasure her until his last breath.