Unknown by Nabila Anjum Read Free Book Online

she breaks in a few minutes later, interrupting me reverie.
     
    Damn, I had that coming. I have been staring at the entrance for some time now. Caught in the act, no excuses.
     
    "Hmmm?" I try to pretend ignorance. Needless to say, it doesn't work.
     
    “Your parents just arrived, I don’t see Elizabeth anywhere, so you might as well pay attention to me”.
     
    I give her an apologetic glance before turning and giving the crowd a quick scan, and observe that Drew is right on both counts. My parents have indeed arrived and Elizabeth is not with them.
     
    My mood takes a nosedive.
     
    "I am paying attention", I murmur sourly,
    berating myself for caring. I must look the epitome of self-imposed misery.
     
    Good. Great. So she isn't here, what does it matter to me.
     
     
    "Hah! What was I speaking about?" Drew questions, pulling her eyebrows in to enhance that scowl.
     
    "Javier, your French boyfriend".
    And I know this only because we had discussed him at length in our last email, and my subconscious had caught on the name while the rest of me was busy sulking.
     
    The answer did not mollify her one bit, instead it had her sighing in resignation. I could never completely grasp the concept of discussing one's exes, but I had enough experience to know it was a favorite with the opposite sex. Drew had been ranting about her ex-boyfriend for some time. I had been hemming and hawing at appropriate places.
     
    "He says he misses me and he wants me back", she declares, furrowing her brows and pouting sullenly.
     
    I wasn’t waiting for her either. I was just, you know, admiring the crowd.
     
    “That’s predictable. Do you want to?”
     
    “Are you kidding me? I still can’t believe we were together for 2 months. What did I ever see in that pea-brained, pompous prig?”
     
    Oh yeah. Love is blind baby.
     
    "I believe it was his herculean body" I reply dryly.
     
    “Yeah, well, he was an attractive, if totally useless, package.”
     
    Damn it. Where was she? Why didn’t she come?
     
    "You are a heartbreaker, Drew."
     
    “I don’t know about that. You managed to break mine.”
     
    Maybe it’s another one of………wait, WHAT?
     
    “Drew?”
     
    “That got your full attention, huh?”
     
    "What is this about, we broke up years ago". How on earth did we jump from the muscle man to me? And why?
     
    "That's right. We did. Because you still loved her, and I was tired of settling for second-best", she whispers, then rolls her eyes as she takes in my guilty stricken grimace.
     
    “I never….I don't…. I was faithful to you", I blurt out, having no clue how to address this unexpected elephant in the room. I was faithful, but I wasn't particularly passionate. And that justified her accusations. I had no defense against just accusations, even though they pierced right through my heart.
     
    I was unfair to her. To the both of us.
     
    “Your fidelity was never in question Nick. You loved her too much to let someone else in. The heart has but 4 ventricles. And she flows through all of them”
     
    I wince at the analogy, though decidedly apropos. It makes me realize how unfair I'd been to her, even if it was wholly unconscious on my part.
     
    “I’m sorry Drew”. Petty words, I had nothing but petty words to offer, nothing but regret.
     
    “Forget it old man. It got me a few hundred bfs, and a brainless version of Adonis", she raps her knuckles against my shoulders good-naturedly, gifting me with a small smile of forgiveness.
     
    I wish I can be as forgiving as she. Now that the idea's been planted, I begin to wonder just how warped I'd been in my own sense of judgment, how cruel, in tangling her in a relationship when my heart wasn't free.

    She gives me another nudge, and I attempt to lighten the atmosphere.
     
    "Hmm, did you just call me brainless?"
     
    She laughs aloud, slightly stamping her high heels on my foot in a playful manner.
     
    "Ouch, Drew!" I let out a mock cry of pain, lifting