Amélie sat down on her chair in the balcony brooding about
what had just happened. She lost track of time and didn’t realize 30 minutes
had already passed until her phone rang and Liza stood up and looked in its
direction.
Amélie threw the cigarette she was smoking and grabbed her
phone off the table next to her to realize it was her colleague video calling
her.
“There is no need to answer,” she thought after checking the
time which was 9:45,”I know why they’re calling”. She was late for her job.
So she put her phone down and went into the bathroom and
took a quick shower which she followed by drying her hair and herself up and
dressing in her formal attire. She applied some fond de teint on her face and
some dark rouge on her lips, then she made her blond hair into a ponytail. She
contemplated into her fine figure in the mirror for a second: she observed her blue eyes and figured she
doesn’t need mascara and her cheeks seemed rosy enough today; no more cosmetics
required.
So she got out of the bathroom, wore her shoes, kissed Liza
goodbye and lit another cigarette and made her way to the subway station.
By the time she reached the station, she had already smoked
two cigarettes. She found an ashtray next to the entrance of the station so she
pressed her cigarette against it and then threw it in the garbage bin.
She got onto the platform station and found an empty bench
so she sat down waiting for the next metro to come.
A few minutes have passed and the operater declared to
"Please stand clear from the platform edges".
A metro soon after came whirling and the squeaking of its
breaks was heard and finally stopped at its designated place.
Amélie mounted the metro and found a bar to cling to at the
middle of the wagon. She was listening to music and was observing those coming
on and off the metro with eyes wide open in a desperate attempt to see Pierre.
But obviously, he was never to be seen.
She reached her station and she got off the metro and headed
to her company wherein she was welcomed by her colleagues and made aware that
she was late for the reunion.
So she found her way to the 7th floor where the reunion was
held and knocked twice on the door and entered the room with her portfolio
which contained the new packaging designs.
After a few hours of discussing what the company is lacking
and in which direction it's heading, the reunion came to an end and it was
lunch time. She had her lunch at the restaurant facing the company entrance
with her colleagues and was told more than once that something seemed off with
her today.
Amélie could have spoken about her anxiety and what had
chanced the night before, but she chose to remain silent and keep to herself
the whole day. For all her colleagues' endeavours to make her talk about what's
ailing her, she didn't bend and kept faking a smile the whole time to reassure
them that everything is okay.
After the lunch was over, they headed back to L'Oréal
headquarters and worked for more couple of hours until it was 5 p.m.
Amelie left the building and departed to Alexandre Dumas
metro station on foot and found a café right next to it, so she went in and sat
in the terrace area facing the descending stairs to Alexandre Dumas subway
platform.
She ordered a medium-sized decaffeinated coffee macchiato and
crossed her legs. She brought her cigarettes out. She lit the first one and
halfway through it, her coffee was ready and she started sipping it while
puffing every now and then. She checked her wristwatch and it struck 6:15pm.
Like in the balcony earlier that day, she just smoked her
cigarette and sipped her coffee observing the random passengers and the petty
sceneries in front of her while hazy thoughts and reflections flowed in her
head like a river.
The thought that consumed her and grew to magnanimous
dimensions to the point of overshadowing the rest was why did Pierre do such
thing. Why did he leave her turmoiling thus and why couldn't she come to her
senses and move on already?
These 3 questions were circulating in her consciousness
simultaneously and they all formed the aforementioned thought. But strangely
enough, she had this wicked voice inside of her head that convinced her that
she doesn't care.
She sat on the chair in the cafeteria playing with her inner
demons, and the clock struck 7:00pm. At this point, Amélie finished her pack of
cigarettes and had some coffee left which she sipped in one gulp. From here on
out, she fixed her eyes on the entrance to the metro platform of Alexandre
Dumas station and was expecting Pierre to show up at any moment.
Circa 15 minutes later and Pierre have come from the
opposite direction in his formal costume with his bag on his back. Hurriedly,
he descended the stairs and went underground.
Amélie had to take a decision. She was torn between her
incredible desire to hear from him and smell his cologne one more time and the deamonic
voice which grew louder and louder telling her to walk away.
For a good while, she thought through her situation and fought the voice, but the
more she did, the faster her heartbeats became and the longer she held her
breath.
After approximately 7 minutes, Pierre came out of the
station and looked around searching for Amélie. The latter spotted him but
stayed motionless. Pierre waited for another couple of minutes and then went
down again.
Amélie reached a level of anxiety that she's never
experienced before. Slowly, she stood off her chair, and then she brought her
phone out of her purse, inserted her earphones and walked in the direction of
the metro station.
A few metres seprated her from the descending stairs when she had a sudden
change of heart. She halted. Took a deep breath closing her eyes. Turned around. And walked in the opposite direction without looking back.
Pierre in one last attempt got out of the station and saw
how she turned around but he didn't react. He smiled, took his headset and iPod
out and went down into the station.
It's been a long day for him, and he could never get used to
the cold Parisian breeze that blew every evening. So he sat down on a bench on
the platform station with a burn in his eyes and a headache that cracked his
skull in half.
FINIS.
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