THE WAIT

Alec reached her apartment building and saw the car parked. He himself pulled over next to her Cadillac and got down.

He went up the stairs, his mind racing about what he was going to say.

He knocked on the door, "Jade it's me... Alec."

Jade who was inside still sitting on the sofa though her tears had stopped a few minutes back gasped.

"Go away! I don't want to talk to you." She yelled back.

She was not going to open the door. She was not going to talk to him.

"Please Jade. Just open the door once. Give me one chance. Listen to what I have to say. Please."

Alec was begging and he didn't care. He just wanted her to open the door and let him inside.

"Just go away!" Jade sobbed.

Alec pulled back his fist and let it bang on the door.

The loud noise made Jade jump.

"I'm not going anywhere till you don't open that door of yours. I don't care if it's today, tomorrow or the next month. I'm waiting here. Till you don't talk to me." Alec said.

Jade got up and walked into her room, closing the door behind her.

She needed to blank out.

She needed the comfort of dreamless sleep. She fell on the bed still fully clothed and fell asleep.

................

When Jade opened her eyes there was an orangish light streaming in through the window in her room.

A glance at the digital clock in her night stand told her that it was 5:30 in the evening. She had slept for nearly 6 hours.

She got up groggily and walked into her kitchen.

Just as she filled a glass with water and took the first sip, her cell phone rang from inside her bag.

She pulled it out to see that it was a call from Blake.

She pressed the answer button, "Hello?"

"Jade! Where the hell have you been? I've been calling you non stop ever since you left. If you want to kill me just feed me some peanuts. Why worry me to death?" Blake yelled.

Had it been any other time, Jade would have smiled at that. Blake had a terrible allergy to peanuts and anything made from them.

"I'm sorry the phone was in my bag. And I fell asleep." She replied.

Her throat felt hoarse from all the crying and yelling.

"Why does you voice sound like...? Were you crying Jade? Is it because of Alec? Oh! He's going to get his ass kicked." Blake snarled.

The mention of Alec's name made Jade wonder if he was still outside her apartment.

She took another sip of water, "I'm fine Blake. Really."

"Okay. Though I don't believe you. But you won't let me help." Blake said, "Call Nicole once. She's been worried about you too."

"I will." Jade said, "Can I call you back later? I need to go now."

The urge to see if Alec was outside was unbearable.

She said a quick bye to Blake and went to her door.

She pulled it open and peered outside.

There was Alec sleeping on the floor outside her apartment.

His back was propped on the walk as he slept. His hair was ruffled and legs were sprawled so that it would be difficult for anyone to go past him.

Jade quickly closed the door before a sob left her mouth.

I'm not going to cry.

I'm not going to cry again.

She kept repeating the words to herself. She picked up her mobile to see that there were 15 missed calls from Blake, 12 from Nicole and 28 from Alec.

There were 12 voicemails from Alec. She clicked on the first one and let his warm voice flow over her, as she sat on the sofa.

Jade... Open the door once! Please. Let me explain. Let me talk to you. I'm not going anywhere till I don't talk to you.

The other voicemails were along the same lines. In some of them, he sounded angry and fed up, then the next one he apologised.

Jade listened to each one of them and curled up into the sofa.

The past few nights she had barely slept. Either she dreamt about Alec or she sat up writing till she was drop dead tired to stay away from the dreams.

With Alec's fading voice she let sleep catch up with her again.

................

Alec woke up with a stiff back and a throbbing head.

Someone nearby was giggling for some reason.

He opened his eyes squinting because of the sunlight that was in his face.

There was two little girls standing in front of him. Both of them were dressed to go to school and were carrying bags.

Alec pushed himself up, "What time is it?" He asked the girls who were still giggling and were standing a few steps away from him.

They looked like sisters, with similar blonde ponytails and blue eyes.

"We're not allowed to talk to strangers. Especially homeless ones." Said the girl who seemed to be the elder one.

Alec smirked, "I'm not homeless."

"Only homeless people sleep in the floor outside." Said the younger one, "So you're lying. We're not allowed to talk to liars too."

Just as Alec was about to answer that, a woman came out from the apartment behind the girls.

She had to be their mother, because it was pretty evident that they had inherited they're looks from her.

"Melissa, Aubrey! You both forgot your water bottles." She said handing the bottles to the girls.

"Mom see!" The younger one said pouting a small chubby index finger at Alec.

The mother looked up to see what had gotten her daughter so excited and she was surprised to see a full grown man sitting on the floor.

It looked like he had spent the night there too.

"Hello ma'am!" Alec said pulling himself to his feet.

"What are you doing here?" The woman said before deliberately holding her daughters fingers and pushing her hand down. "Aubrey it is rude to point."

"He's homeless Mom." The elder one, Melissa, said gleefully.

"I assure you ma'am I'm no such thing. You're daughters seen to have misunderstood." Alec started to explain.

"I know. I heard you talk to Jade. Not that it was to hard to hear, what with both of you yelling." The woman shrugged.

Angela Webber had been living in the apartment opposite Jade for the past 3 years, and never had there ever been as much excitement as the last couple of weeks.

Alec's flushed a little, "I'm sorry about that."

"No problem. If you want something to eat, I could give it to you while you wait."

Alec looked up in surprise.

Why was this woman helping him?

"I know I know.... You're thinking why am I helping you. Well there's a simple reason." Angela said, "Only a guy who is in love would agree to spend almost 24 hours outside a girls door."

Alec didn't reply to that he nodded his head in the form of an answer.

"I'll just drop these little ones to the school and come back and give you something to eat."

Angela flashed a smile and walked away with the two girls bouncing along with her.

...................

An hour later, Alec sat down outside the door again and dialled Jade's number.

At least now his stomach was not growling from starvation.

While having ham sandwiches and cups of coffee, Alec had spilt the whole story to Angela.

He had learnt that she was a divorced mother, taking care of her two daughters alone and working at the same time, while their dad lived a happy life in New York.

Now he had to go back to trying to convince Jade to open the door and listen to him.

The cell rang.

But no one picked up. Instead he heard the door open and there stood Jade in a pair of shorts and a tank top.

Her eyes were blood shot and her face looked splotchy.

"Come in Alec." She said in a defeated tone.

...................