Once upon a time, a young woman met a young man at a library. Their stolen glances towards each other would not go unnoticed by either of them. However, both of them were too shy to approach the other one. One day, the man devised a way to talk to her.
It was a Sunday afternoon. The woman had finished reading the Britannica about chess and was looking for some other book. Suddenly, she noticed a newspaper kept on the table near her. She picked it up. The crossword printed on it was unsolved. She smiled and sat down to start solving it. Unbeknownst to her, a smile crept on the face of the guy who was peeping. When she left after solving a few, he went over and solved the rest.
A few weeks and six solved crosswords later, they could finally gather the courage to talk to each other. Somewhere along the path, the girl had also noticed the guy and had felt butterflies in her stomach. The awkwardness between them had vanished and they chatted like old friends. When the guy asked for her name, she smiled sweetly and said, "Estella".
Fate, however, seemed to have something else for them. On the day of the date, Estella kept waiting for him to show up. She waited and waited, but he never arrived. Heartbroken, she gulped the rest of her Vienna roast and left.
The next morning, she woke up to find out that an accident had taken place near the library she visited a lot. A car driver was driving while drinking and had hit a young man. When taken to the nearest hospital, he was declared dead. She read the description of the man and froze. It was him. Estella clutched the newspaper and broke down. Her tears slipped down her cheeks and fell on the latest crossword.
Years later, she was a successful owner of a coffee shop. She would keep the old newspapers in a neat stack, hoping one day, someone would find them and enjoy their times as much as she did. One day, when she was throwing away the newspapers, she kept the one with the almost solved crossword.
She would not let this story end up as hers did.
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estella's | ✓
Short Story→ featured on CoffeeCommunity [ 2022 ] A dimply lit coffee shop - to the ordinary eyes Estella's was nothing more than that. However, it is the smallest of cafés that brew the sweetest romance. → all rights reserved → completed → word count - 3k →...
