The Girl He Didn't Want

Chapter 28

Mayas POV

'Here you go sir. Have a nice day'

I gave a polite smile to the young man who stood in front of me. He took the coffee I handed him and thanked me and then turned away.

'Hi, how can I help you?' I asked the next customer kindly. Truth to be told I was thankful for this job at this moment. Never did I like this job so much as I did right now. The café job helped me to think of anything else than James and his gorgeous woman who sat plastered close to him at the restaurant the other day.

While at work I only had to think of what people ordered. They didn't need to talk to me about anything else. However, it wasn't that easy with Jane as my colleague. She noticed my every move. I honestly tried to seem normal but somehow I was like an open book. It was like all my feelings were outside of my shell.

I couldn't fool anyone.

'What's wrong?' she asked me cooly. She had a piece of gum in her mouth and chewed lazily while having arms folded at the chest. I closed my eyes and sighed. I was in the middle of servicing a customer and at the same time trying to figure out what I could tell Jane.
Jane was this cool chick, who had a band. Their band was performing at a local bar not too far from here. She was the lead singer and she also worked here to pay her bills. She had a side cut on one side of her head and then long hair on the other side. She had green eyes and her hair was brown with purple stripes. I thought she was cool. She was a good colleague but also a nice friend. We didn't meet after work but we clicked really well at work. She and I talked about everything while at work, so it was obvious that she could see right through me.

Although she didn't hear anything about James. Somehow I didn't want anyone at my work to know my personal business.

I just gave her a blank look and told her I was fine. She didn't buy it though. So I told her the truth. The truth about my parents looking for a husband for me. I did leave out the part about James and what I saw last time. That was too humiliating. She knew my past with Oliver, so it would be so hard to tell her that something like that happened once again.

'No way Maya, are you serious? I didn't know you were into arranged marriage though' she kept chewing her gum and it kind of irritated me now. She was cool but sometime Jane could really give people the impression of her not giving a shit about a thing.

'In fact, yes I am serious and you're right I'm not really into it but it's not bad as you think... I think it will be nice as it would be nice to be with someone who actually would accept me for who I am and know my culture beforehand'. I turned around to help the next customer. I got the order and moved over to the coffee machine to make an espresso coffee with a slice of today's special cake.

Jane stood beside me and took another order after me. When she turned around, she faced me but whispered slightly. 'Bullshit Maya. You are running from something. Did someone hurt you? Is it Oliver again?'

I shot her a fierce look and suddenly got heated. I hated the mention of Oliver. He was not supposed to have so much influence over my life. I was getting tired of it.

'Uh, guess I hit a soft spot there. Sorry girl, but hey. Let me know if you want to talk' she quickly gave me a side hug and then turned back to her customer with a chocolate drink. I watched her with shame. She just wanted to help me; I knew that. But after talking to Rose I didn't want to enlighten anyone else in my failure of a love life.

I mumbled a thanks and went back to work.

It had been two days since I last saw that agonizing sight of James. I had received a text from him yesterday but didn't answer him. I mean, what was I supposed to do at all? I certainly didn't want to confront him about it – that would only give the impression that I was in love with him. And I so did not want him to know anything about that if he had planned to date some other girl especially.

I remembered very clearly what Oliver said to me when I asked him why he cheated on me. His reply about me saving myself before marriage and that I was different was a huge slap on the face. I didn't want to hear it again. Not from James this time. Somehow I had a feeling that it would break me even more if I heard it from him. I had never loved someone as deep as I loved James.

James was such a gentleman. He was protective, he was kind, he was so caring and I felt safe in his presence. I felt like nothing could break my world as long as I was with him. And we had fun, like actual fun. We could watch random movies together that no one would understand. We were also goofy together. Although James was a very serious man with his work and fancy house, he was so much more than that. He was sympathetic, thoughtful and he was not afraid of showing his silly side of him. I felt like I could be myself.

Although it apparently was only an illusion. That's what I had been thinking. That I could be myself. But maybe that was the problem!?

Maybe he couldn't handle the person I really was. Maybe the fact that I was myself. My culture and all freaked him out. Maybe he was still not into black and brown girls. Girls like me would never meet his expectations...

He had to feel the same things that I felt. But I knew that it couldn't be like that after what I saw.

I just had to stay away from him as far as possible. Even though how much I missed him and wanted to punch him, I wanted to escape.

As I got off from work I wanted to go home quickly. I had a long day just smiling at strangers all day. I needed the evening for myself and my not so happy thoughts. It was hard putting on a happy mask.

I took my apron off and put it back in the room behind the desk. I turned off the lights in the café and locked the door after me. As I headed toward my car to drive home I heard a bling from my bag.

I took my phone up and saw his name plastered on the screen.

Hey, are you okay? I need to talk to you, can we meet?

NO, NO NO! I didn't want to see him anymore. I was sick and tired of all of this bullshit. The tears were coming up again and I suddenly decided to stop whatever we had going on.

I texted back in a haste and put down my phone in the bag.

No, we can't talk. I think we should stop hanging out. Bye

After a couple of minutes, my phone started to ring on repeat. I glanced at the screen and saw that it was James calling me up. I grunted and then ignored him. When I got home, I made sure to block his number on my cell phone so he couldn't bother me.

He wanted to talk, yeah? To tell me that he met that beautiful woman and wanted to ditch me for her?

Um, no thanks my FRIEND. I'd rather eat raw worms than hearing you say that.