Half Girlfriend

‘You're beautiful, it’s true.'
I just kept looking at her.
What all you made me go through, Riya Somani, my eyes said.
I’m sorry, her eyes said to me. A tear ran down her cheek. Mine
too.
I thought I would have so much to say to her when I finally met
her. I had mentally rehearsed it many times. I would be angry at first.
I would shout, tell her how much she had put me through. I would
then tell her what she meant to me. How I was not that jerk, Rohan. Or
that others may have let her down, but I wouldn’t. And that my mother
could only be happy if I was. I had my speech all planned.
However, neither of us said a word.
We just looked at each other and cried, and cried. After some time
she stepped forward. That is all Riya Somani does. She gives you a
little clue she is ready. You just need to be alert enough to pick it up. I
opened my arms. They shook as she came closer. I took her in my
arms.
‘I... I’m sorry...’ she said.
‘Shh,’ I said. ‘Remember you placed a condition last time? No
questions asked twice. I have one now.’
‘What?’ she said in the softest whisper.
'No questions at all. In fact, if possible, no words.’
She buried her face in my chest. I lifted her chin.
‘Riya Somani, I love you. Always have. Always will. Please, never,
ever leave me.’
She shook her head and said,‘l won’t...I can’t...’
I continued,‘Shh... Because next time I will find you again and kill
you.’
She smiled and cried at the same time Some of the crowd cheered,
even though they were confused about what was going on. The pianist
ended the song. The restaurant staff switched on the concert room
lights. People began to make their way out.
I continued to hold her.