It was sunset. The sun was slowly kissing the horizon of seemingly endless sea, creating a vivid blend of celestial hues. Sunset. It was always beautiful.
She was standing there beholding the majestic sight at the top of nowhere, so it seemed to her, with him sharing an uncomfortable silence. Finally, she broke the silence.
"Pretty, isn't it?" She began.
"Were sunsets in the Caribbean these beautiful?", he asked.
"They're beautiful anywhere."
Silence.
Then she asked. "How are you?" Oh, How I've been missing you!
I'm good. I'm good." Now that I'm finally seeing you. "And you?"
"Still the same. Seven years didn't change me much. Oh, well - I've got shorter hair. That isn't much of a change, eh?"
"You look great." You're more beautiful than the last time I saw you...
"Thanks."
More silence.
"I'm settling down." He broke in.
Do I...do I know her?". She stammered. So, it's true isn't it? How I can be so wrong! She felt a heavy lump on her throat.
"Some girl." I wish she were you.
"When?" I can't believe this...
"Tomorrow. They say it's a good time to marry." He chuckled.
"So they say." Why didn't you wait for me? She wanted to cry.
"Can you come?" I have been waiting for you this long. Please tell me I won't have to do this...
"Listen. I am happy for you. You've been wanting this and finally you're settling down. But I'm so sorry I can't make it on your big day. I've got tickets and I'm bound to Seychelles on the morrow. Don't do this...You can't marry that some girl! Please ask me to stay or come with me.
"You're leaving again." There was a longing intensity in his voice. Please stay...
"I guess I always have this wanderlust that I can't stay glued in one place." I'm going away as far as I could from you.
"Are sunsets there as beautiful as that?" He asked with a hint of sadness.
"I'm sure they are. Anywhere." They are even as painful to look at...
"You really didn't change, did you?"
"I told you I did not". She said with deep conviction.
"Must you leave again?" Am I not enough for you to stay?
"I wish I could stay. But things are different now." You are the reason why I came back and still the very reason why I'll be going away. I can't see you marrying off another woman. It would kill me.
"So this means goodbye." I thought I could make you stay but you are going away and leaving me again. That is so cruel.
She smiled bitterly. And with her head high, she turned her back on him. She's leaving him first the way she'd left him before. But now she's not coming back.
Like the colors in the sky, the hope that they had once held so dear in their hearts was slowly fading away displaced by the approaching twilight. They were both hoping to hear from the other the words that they were dying to hear. They were hoping the other would not let go. But it seemed letting go was the easiest way to dodge the pain away for the moment and yet the hardest to accept when reality would finally sink in. Alas, their prized hopes and wishes were just but mute entities ever to occur in this existence never ever finding their way to realization.
