I

Ollantaytambo, Peru

sat in the café and sipped my coffee. The tiny blue trains to Machu Pichu came and went at
regular intervals. I downloaded my trip photos from my phone into my laptop as a backup. My
laptop flashed the date, 23 March, with a reminder saying ‘Message B’. It had been three months
since the Goa fiasco. Despite the reminder I found it difficult to gather the courage to message him. I
flipped through every picture from my trip to distract myself.
In the past month, I had started eastwards from London. I visited Berlin, Cairo, Beijing and
Sydney before taking a flight to Lima in Peru, South America. From Lima I landed up in
Ollantaytambo, or simply Ollantay, the base point to visit the famous ruins of Machu Pichu. I stayed at
the historic and charming El Albergue hotel, located right at the mini train station that one uses to visit
Machu Pichu.
One hour and two cappuccinos later, I took out my phone.
Radhika, just do it. What’s the worst that will happen?
I sent a WhatsApp message to Brijesh.
‘Hi.’
I waited for another half an hour, until the blue ticks appeared. He had read my message. He
didn’t respond. My heart sank. This was all a bad idea anyway.
‘Hi. Wassup?’ he typed back a few minutes later.
‘Today would have been three months. Of our almost wedding anniversary,’ I replied.
He sent a smiley.
‘Sorry again,’ I replied.
‘Hey, all part of life. How are you doing?’
‘Good. Travelling. Took that trip I told you about.’
‘Round the world?’
‘Yes.’
‘Reached full circle yet?’
‘Almost. I still have two more flights to go.’
‘Cool. Where are you now?’
‘Peru. Came to see Machu Pichu.’
‘Nice.’
‘Where are you right now?’ I said.
‘At work. No such luck like you!’
‘Brijesh, I wanted to ask you something.’
‘Sure.’
‘My next stop is San Francisco. I am there in three days.’
‘Oh, cool.’
‘Yeah. Was wondering if you want to meet for a coffee?’
He didn’t respond for a few minutes. I had a sinking feeling about this. I sent him another
message anyway.
‘I totally understand if you can’t or if you don’t want to.’
‘Sorry, my boss had called me. Yeah sure, would love to have coffee.’
‘Really? Great.’
‘Yeah, can we do it in Menlo Park? Easier for me.’