Short Story: Fifteen Steps - Part 2

Written by: Zainab Waqar

He had been following her for quite some time now. A beautiful girl was walking beside a man, her husband he supposed. He carefully kept his distance about fifteen footsteps as he followed. Suddenly they stepped, her husband got busy on the phone while she started walking around aimlessly. He stood still just looking at her, wondering if she noticed him, and just then her eyes stopped wandering. She was looking straight at him, her gaze fixed. 

He wanted her to run into his arms, to recognize him. As she approached him step by step, he got lost in the past. She was everything he had ever wished for, his first true love. Under all these layers of wool he remembered her every curve, he has touched her smooth skin, every inch of it. How she loved and caressed him, their first kiss and all the others after. Why didn’t he fight for her, how did he gave her up that easy? All these questions were running through his mind. It was six years ago but felt as if it happened yesterday.

As she got near, her familiar fragrance struck him. She was so close, if he wanted he could hold her and never let go. He looked in her eyes and knew she still loved him. He wanted to tell her how he’s been what he has been up to and know everything about her but that moment in itself was perfect. Nothing needed to be said, they were able to read every expression of one another. She looked even more beautiful than before and her eyes sparkled with his reflection in them.

“Aleyana!” she turned around to see her husband looking for her. She had to go he knew that, no matter how much he wanted her to stay. He could see tears filling up her eyes. “I have to be strong for her.” he thought. So he smiled to let her know everything was okay, and it was okay to get back in her life, it was okay to leave. She gave him a broken smile back, they both knew she never wanted to go, but she turned around and started walking. As he saw her moving away he had tears in his eyes. She didn’t look back; neither did he want her to. He wanted to keep her close and caressed her for the rest of their lives. She went on and he stood there looking at her as she started to disappear in the crowd.

Short Story: Fifteen Steps

Written by: Zainab Waqar

She suddenly stopped, thought she saw something, someone. Yes, it was someone she had known, someone who had been close to her, but she wasn’t sure if it was real or an illusion of him. Should she approach him? This could turn her life upside down. Maybe act as you never noticed, but she did notice him. He was standing still; starring right back at her cause he knew that she did see him. As she started walking towards him her heart began to beat to the point of explosion, she felt sick in the stomach and everything from the beginning played in her mind.

Remembered his love and passion, how gorgeous he looked, tall and lean, with perfect sandy hair and the most amazing eyes. His every expression, everything they had been through. She recalled it in just fifteen steps, for now they were close, and she could inhale the same familiar smell that she loved. As they looked in each other’s eyes, it was like they have never been apart. Even after six years everything was the same every feeling was right there. They were still in love with one and another.

“Aleyanna” her name brought her back in present. Her husband just hung up the phone and now was looking for his wife. She looked over and then back at this man, who still hasn’t moved an inch. Nothing was needed to be said even though she wanted to tell him that she still loved him. And at times in the middle of the night she tosses and turns, she thinks of him. Perhaps they could read each other’s eyes; he smiled to assure her that it was okay. Okay to pretend she never saw him.

She gave him a broken smile as her eyes were now filled with tears. She turned and started walking away, away from him, away from all those memories, away from the shades of his love. She didn’t dare look back. She was beside her husband in exact fifteen steps. But no one could ever know what she had lived in those fifteen steps. She lived a lifetime. She went to everything wonderful and came back to everything ordinary.