“Finally, it's Friday man,” exclaims Nora as she passes the cigarette to me. We stood outside the Salstone bar which is brimming with young people. Earlier Nora asked me why we drove this far? To that, I just mentioned it’s just for a change. She was worried that she might not get a signal on her phone which recently became her essential part of her family.

“Oh yes. I so need booze, want to join?” I asked her knowing the answer as I take another deep drag from the cigarette.

“Are you kidding me? I am in,” she answers, as she opens the lock on her cell phone. She complains about the poor signal.

As I finish the cigarette, a car comes and stops just in front of us. The car looks familiar and as I am about to guess who this might be, I hear the door opening and then sound of the heels. It is her; I was sure now. I crush the cigarette with my feet as she approached me.

She sent me a message earlier but I did not expect her be here this soon, since she was always late and never kept her promises.

“If you are reading this message, Come to our usual spot,” it read. There were no endearments which I understood. But that sounded like an order, as though she is doing a favour to me. It’s been a year since we talked and the last thing I wanted was her uninvited message. I did tell her when she left me that never to contact me and here she is bossing me around. I wanted to see her but not at all in this way.

“Hey who is she?” Nora asked, as she gave her a polite glance and resumed staring at her phone.

“My Ex sadly,” I left a sigh but my heart was acting weirdly. This always happens when I see her ever since she left me. It feels heavy as though my heart is doing weight lifting and suddenly it charged up and trying to lift an unbearable weight. No matter what, your ex will sure have some influence.

Before Nora says anything I told her to wait for me and I approached my Ex. Yes, I didn’t want any scene to create in front of my so called friend who is always on the look for instances to humiliate me.

Before I say anything, my ex says to me “You know why I come here?” and we walk towards the parking area which provided some privacy.

I shrugged at her (who the hell thought she would message me)

“I am here to tell the reason ki mai kyo tumhe chodke gayi (why I left you)” she utters in her usual manner which once enchanted me, a mix of Hindi and English.

I hid my smile and replied “I did have a brief idea about it, so it doesn’t matter. I care less about the reason." She is allergic to smoke, so I pushed the cigarette pack in the pocket which I was about to take out.

“Mujhe pata hai (I know) you are lying. You do want to know the reason. I felt your pain when I read your Facebook and watsapp statuses, so mai sochi ki (I thought that) you want to know the reason.”

“Oh those were written on an impulse, I am sorry if they came across like that,” I looked around the parking area and I caught a couple going at the back of the car, lucky day for the guy I smirked.

She took a deep breath looked at me “you know I never liked your dressing and I detested your hair style so I left." 

I stood there with “what the f***” face staring at her.

Before I say anything she briskly walked to her car, her heels making tick tok sound when she walked on the pavement and the next thing I heard ignition sound of her car.

I came back to my friend who is now chatting on the phone, typing with both hands. Must be Rom I thought. I grabbed the cell phone from her to get attention and then she screamed “click send…behanchod(sister fucker)." I just exited the app and she punched me hard on my tummy.

I lit another cigarette, which I was waiting so eagerly and asked Nora “Hey how is my hairstyle?”

She looked at me suddenly as though I asked her for one night stand, “umm it’s cool, why suddenly dude?”

“My ex gave me this reason that I don’t have a sense of dressing and my hair style is pathetic," I answered as I handed her a cigarette.

“What the F*ck! Is she all right?” she has that same look as I had earlier.

“Exactly,” I said as I put my arm around her neck and squeezed it and said “drinks on me.”

We settled in the corner table which faced the window to its right but it was at the end of the room means the service will be slow. I took out my cell phone started typing a message.

“Hey what are you doing, asking Jollybean if she is free?” she teased me taking another girls name whom she calls Jollybean.

“Nope, texting my Ex, How the hell she could talk like that and what sort of reason is that," I replied without looking at her as I typed a long message.

Nora looked at me and said “Then she will contact you again to have another say. Then you will send another message again, just so you could have the last words. I hope this makes you feel better. I also hope that you will find that peace where you don't need to have the last say. In truth, I hope you attain that point that you will care less and let it go if something she says doesn't help at all.” She was spot on and I stopped typing the message, locked the cell phone and bowed to her.

“Where the heck this wisdom comes from and we still not had our drinks," I appreciate her in an annoying way.

She just smiled at me and I raised the glass water “cheers to the friendship.”

“Tagay,” She chortled and raised her glass and we sipped and she gets back to her business, chatting to Rom.

I did not send her message nor contacted her. It is better not to scratch the healing wound and make it worse, just let it be.