Diana is busy now due to her preparation to go to another country with her husband. I’m happy to see her who is happy with her marriage and her plan with her husband. But on another side, I feel sad too. Because it means I will be alone now. She will be far away from me. No more hang out with her, no more cooking class with her. Well, she is so smart for making delicious foods and I learn about this from her.
No.. I must be ready to hang out alone, to go to the book store alone. No more crazy things that I can do like we did before. Well ya, everything will change and nothing is permanent in this world. But I’m going to miss her and our togetherness…
Ohh..God, it’s bad for what I thought before… I should thankful to You for what I have got. And I’m not alone actually, because my God will always be with me.. J .
Beside it, I still can keep in touch with this my best friend, although she is not here and we cannot hang out together again. Maybe one day I can visit her then we can hang out again and or when she comes back one day, then we can hang out again. Tomorrow is my last day with Diana before she goes abroad. And we plan to spend one day to hang out since morning. I plan to take many pictures with her so it can be a good memory for us J .
Before I sleep I check the email first. When I find an email from Robert. He invites me to his birthday party tomorrow. Ohh..it’s impossible. I will have ‘me time’ with Diana tomorrow. Of course, I don’t want to cancel the appointment with Diana. It’s gonna be our last ‘me time’ before she goes. And her time is so short to be here. It’s impossible too if I asked her to reschedule. It will give her more problem. Because she has made some schedule for herself before she goes. I don’t want to make her be difficult. I think I cannot attend to Robert’s party. Besides it, we are not so close and we just meet some times, I think it’s fine for him and it’s gonna be fine if I cannot attend his party. Eemm…maybe also it’s fine if don’t reply to his email. he won’t be aware of this.
I choose to do not to reply to his email and put my phone down and sleep.
***
Good morning… and I’m ready to go now. Before I go, I check my phone first, maybe Diana leaves me messages or calling. Suit as the plan that we will meet in one of her favourite restaurants. This restaurant is open since 7am to 8pm. So we plan to have breakfast there. There is nothing from her, but I find an email from Robert.
Assalamu’alaikum Wr. Wb.
Hi
Seems you still don’t reply to my email. is everything ok? Could you please reply to my email and let me know that you are fine or not. And could you please to come to my party tonight?
I’m waiting.
Thank you
Wassalamu’alaikum Wr. Wb.
He said that he is waiting. Waiting for my email or my attendance. Wait… please, Cara.. don’t be so confident. Of course, he is waiting for your email, not about your attendance at his party. Hehehee..too confident I am..
Before I go, I reply to his email first and tell him that I cannot come to his party and convey my apologies regarding it.
Oke, done. So it’s time to go now.
***
I just arrived in the restaurant and the situation is not really crowded. And I think that it’s good. Diana doesn’t come yet maybe she is still on the way. So I will choose the seat. I choose the corner side one with the window is on my right side. So I can see the beautiful flowers outside and get fresh air.
Diana sends me a message on instant message and tells me that she is a little late to arrive here because she has to do something first. Ok, then seems I have to order first now while waiting for her. Lucky that I bring some books so I can read too.
An email comes to my phone. I thought maybe Diana who did it. But I’m wrong. Robert asks me why I cannot come to his party. I reply to his email and tell the reason why I cannot come to his party.
A minute to go then..
“hi, Cara.. I’m so sorry I’m late..” Diana comes and joins me to sit in front of me.
“It’s oke, dear. So how is the preparation?” I want to know too about her preparation. Because we are very rare to meet since the last time we met at her wedding.
“almost done. But I’m gonna miss you..” Just arrives here, she has said like that.
“yes. I’m gonna miss you too. Hope we still can keep in touch and maybe one day I can visit you there and when you come back here, please contact me and maybe we still can hang out”. I really hope like that and keep supporting her and give her a smile to make her calm down.
“of course. And we can utilize social media or anything that we can use.. hehehehe” she agrees with me.
“btw I’m sorry I have ordered first.. hehehehe..hungry so cannot wait for this one”. I explained to her that I have ordered. So let her order too.
“it’s oke.. J . hehehe.. I’m gonna order now. Seems I wanna have my favourite menu that maybe I cannot find easily when I’m not here.”
Again my phone is ringing with email notification. Then I check the phone.
“are you busy, miss Cara?” hehehe.. Diana asks me with a joke formal style which is kidding and teasing me actually.
“hehehe..not, mam. Just replying the email.”
“is it still about your new book?”
“ohh.. no. it’s from a friend. A new friend”
“a new friend?... oo..oo.. so you have a new friend but u didn’t tell me?”
“it’s not like that. I wanna talk to you, but you are busy and I don’t wanna disturb you”
“come on, Cara.. I just wanna go and after this, we cannot be free as we had used to. You know this very well, right. And plus we cannot be easy to meet. So why don’t you share to me about something new when we still have time? Are you getting make a distance between us, even when I am still here?
“so sorry, Di. I don’t mean to be like that. I just don’t wanna disturb you. I know that you are busy recent days and I can understand and I just wanna give you space and let you prepare everything well. Because you will go for the long term, not just for a holiday that will take 3 or 5 days. I hope you understand too what I did to you about this. I don’t mean bad. Please don’t be angry, mam.
“ohh so sweet you are.. hehhee.. ok, I’m not angry but with one condition.”
“thank you.. hehehe.. ok, what is it?”
“now please tell who is your new friend? Is he or she? And how can you meet?”
“ohh..mam.., one by one, please.. hehehee”
Then we laugh together.
The rest time I tell her all about Robert and how the way I meet Robert.
“I see.. is he cute?” my this friend likes to tease me and she is always like that. She will ask about the face. But actually, she is not the kind of person who will judge the person only from the face. She will see the heart too.
“mam, handsome or cute or not it will be relative. But he is a good guy seems so. Because I just knew him. I don’t know much about him.
“so why don’t you come to his party. Then maybe you can be able to know more about this man?”
I also tell Diana about Robbert’s invitation to his birthday party.
“Di, today is our day. So I don’t wanna erase our time.”
“what time is his party and where is it?”
“8pm at the coffee shop nearby the park where we like to hang out too. “
“ok, I got it.”
“What do you mean?”
“Cara, we don’t need to erase our ‘me time’ for attending his party.”
“come on, Di. This is our last ‘me time’ before you go. And I don’t want you to get a problem to reschedule again our ‘me time’ if I attend to his party. Beside it, I don’t wanna come.
“Car, we still have our ‘me time’, even we can make it better with the party.”
Diana gets the confuse face that she reads from my face.
“Car, we will attend to his party. So you will not go there alone. And I like to spend my time in the coffee shop too. So nothing to be erased from our ‘me time’. And more of that we can celebrate our last time in his party.. hehehe.. and seems I curious how Robert looks like.. hehehe..
“are you sure with this idea, Di?”
“sure. Or you don’t want if I know about Robert?”
“ohh.. it’s not like that, Di. Of course, it’s fine if you know him.”
“so how?”
“But I don’t prepare the gift for him”
“it’s easy. We still have time to go to the mall. And wait… is there any dress code for the party?”
“eemm..seems no.. well, actually I don’t know.. hehehe.. because I’ve said to him that I will not come, so I don’t ask the dress code.
“ok, leave it for the dress code.”
“Di, if there is a dress code and our clothes don’t match then we can face the problem.”
“relax.. we can be a different, right?! Hehehee.. sometimes need to break the rules, dear.. hehehe”
Her crazy idea comes now and I think what she said is true for this case. So forget the dress code. It doesn’t mean that we don’t respect the owner party but because we are not ready with the dress code. Hope Robert will understand with this and don’t feel offended. Because although if I ask him, we still cannot be ready with the dress code. So we finish our foods and we go to the mall and search for a gift for Robert. Well, I don’t know much about him, so I don’t know what I should give to him. We take much time for this. Then we deice to give him one empty drawing book that can be used for him to draw anything with the simple hardcover.
When we talked at the coffee shop for the first time used to, he said that he likes drawing. And I give him a tie with colour is dark blue with white small stars. Those are wrapped with a simple way and with some words on small paper.
“Happy Birthday, hope these can be used for you. Have a great and happy year, more barokah and rahmah from Allah ta’ala and all is with Ridho from Allah S. W. T. aamiin. Caramella”
It’s good Diana helps me to choose the gift. Because I don’t know and I’m not ready for this. Because the time is almost near so we go to the coffee shop directly from the mall. Traffic jam is bad at that evening. Diana is with me in my car. Her driver will pick her up in the coffee shop when she wants to go home. Seems today is another busy day too. And we are late when we arrive at the party. The first thing that we make sure is about the dress code.. heehhee.. and we are lucky that seems there is no dress code. The people who attend the party wear different colour and style. So we are safe from the dress code.
“Car, where is Robert? I think it’s better if we meet him first then we can find our seat”. Diana suggests. And I agree with her. So my eyes wipe the people around there to find Robert. Oke, I find him.
“Di, he is over there, in the right corner that there are some people around him.”
“ok, let’s go there.”
Closer then we can see clearly that seems the people around him are not just his friend, but also there are his parents. Seems it’s not just a party that he makes with his friends. Well ok, many of them wear a nice dress, a party dress. Now look at me and Diana, we are so different. Yes, because we just wear casual dress. I feel not comfortable and make my step stops.
“Di, are you sure with this?”
“what do you mean?”
“look at them, they wear a nice dress, which is a costume for the party. And look at us, we just wear casual one.”
“Car, forget the people around and their clothes. Beside it we come to here is for your friend not for them. So just meet your friend then give the gift then we go. And let me see how is him, of course. Maybe he can replace me and take good care of you when I’m not here.. š
“Di, please what are you thinking? Even we are not as close as you thought. We just knew for each other. So your thought is impossible. And please stop thinking like that ok. Well, what you said about to meet him and go is true, but around him are not just his friends but seems there are his parents too. I just feel not comfortable with what we wear. I don’t want they think that we don’t respect or appreciate them or Robert.
“Cara, please listen to me to meet him and please don’t move back ok. We have already been here. If you worry about his parents, I think I know what we can do for solving this. We will wait until he walks a little far from his parents then we come to him. So at least only him who will see us closer and notice our clothes. And you know what seems I got feeling about you and him.
She says those and ends with a naughty wink for teasing me but another side gives me a serious expression which wants to show that what she thought is something that can happen.
“Di, please stop thinking like that, oke. Your thought is out of the range. Oke, I agree with you. We will wait here.
I don’t want she thinks more about that.
After some minutes we wait then we find the right time to approach him. So we go and meet him soon.
“Assalamu’alaikum.. hi”
“Wa’alaikum Salam.. hi.., I thought you wouldn’t come as u said like that on the email and even you didn’t reply to my last email. you really surprise me. And thank you for that also thank you for coming.
He talks fast for those sentences and Alhamdulillah he looks fine with us. He is not angry due to I didn’t reply to his email.
“oh ya, I’m sorry about that. Yes, previous it was true that I cannot come because I already have an appointment with my best friend and today is gonna be our last ‘me time’, so we plan to spend one day to hang out. Then she knew and thought that maybe we still can hang out without skipping your party. And also I’m sorry that we don’t dress well, because we decided this when we were outside and no time to change the dress. Oh ya, this is my best friend, Diana. And Di, this is Robert.
“hi, yes… so sorry for our coming late to your party and we didn’t prepare well” Diana talks first and showing our dress that is so casual.
“hi, that’s ok. your both coming is enough for me. It’s really a nice surprise on my birthday.” He looks so happy.
“oh ya… here it is.. just a little and Happy Birthday..” I give him the gift that almost forgets to be given and also about to say birthday to him. It’s the first time I say to him. In fact, I knew this party is for his birthday, but how can I just say this now??.. so bad I am. Feel a little guilty inside.
“Hey.., what are you doing? You don’t need to do this. You have already given many gifts to me from your books. If I knew that you come tonight, I would have brought the books and ask you to sign on them..hehehehe.. anyway, thank you very much for coming, it means a lot to me.
He gets my confuse expression of my face, but he only replies it with a smile.
“hello…there is me here..” Diana feels be ignored by Robert, but she just teases us without meaning serious on her sentence.
“oohh.. I’m sorry… I don’t mean to ignore you." But this makes Robert feels guilty. Because he talks seem only to me, in fact, there is Diana too besides me.
“it’s ok, just relax, I’m just kidding.. hehehee..” Diana explains and this can make Robert feel better. And we laugh.
“Could both of you follow me, please? I wanna introduce my parents”
“what?.. ohh..emm..emm..” I look at to Diana with my expression how to do now. Since first we avoid his parents due to our clothes are not proper for the party. But now Robert asks us to meet his parents. I ask Diana's helps to support me to talk and find the reason to avoid this.
“ohh..eemm…I’m sorry, seems we wanna go to the toilet first now.. urgent..” lucky that Diana got me and find the escape way, but why toilet. I don’t wanna do anything there. Ohh maybe she wants to go there so I can join her too.
“I see.. ok, please. But I’m waiting for you to come back here. I really wanna introduce to my parents”. Robert allows us to go but seems not really let me go, because he is waiting for us to come back there and still wanna introduce us to his parents.
“ok, see you” Diana takes me to go to the toilet.
When we are in the toilet, no one of us who wants to do something there. So we just think about what to do next.
“I thought you really want to go to the toilet, Di.”
“no, I just got the reason to escape from him. But seems he still doesn’t let us go, Car. Seem we can’t to go soon like our plan before.”
“Di, then how now? It’s impossible to meet his parents with our dress are like this.”
“but Car, It looks impolite also if we just go without telling him.”
“oke, how if we try to tell him that seems now is not a good time for introducing us to his parents, because our clothes look like not proper and this can make them think that we don’t respect them. There is no other way unless telling the truth. Hope he will understand and let us go.”
I don’t wanna tell lie or fake reason to Robert. So I think to tell the truth is the best way. And Diana agrees with me, then we go out of the toilet and will meet Robert to say the reason and also say farewell to him.
“hi, finish?” Robert is here, near the toilet. This surprise us. Is he waiting for us to exit from the toilet?
“ahh..hi, wow here you are. You surprise us. What are you doing here?” I am curious about what is he doing there.
“want to make sure that you still be here so I wait for you here”. He explains with a big smile.
“what?.. hey, you don’t need to do that.”
“ya, just wanna wait. So let’s come on”. He soon wants to take us to meet his parents.
“Robert, wait.” Soon I stop him.
“emm..i’m really sorry.. seems we cannot meet your parents now, because please look at our dress. It’s not proper at all. I don’t want your parents will think that we don’t respect them or being careless. Emm….so maybe next time we can meet your parents. And seems we have to go now.
I try to explain to him and apologize. Well, actually Diana and I still want to be there, want to spend our last night. But I think if we want to escape from Robert’s plan, we have to go from there and find another place.
“no..no..please just meet my parents now. It’s ok with your dress. They will not think like that. They are nice and think wisely. It’s the right time to introduce you to them.
“but..” I look at to Diana still ask her helps with another argument to make him sure and let we go.
“I think what Cara said is right. Maybe next time will be better. Beside it, seems all of your other friends are waiting for you”. The same time there is his friend who calls him to join them.
“no.. I mean it’s oke, I will meet them later. I’ve been waiting for her and it’s the right time. Please listen to me.. please.. please..” Robert keeps insisting to run his plan and said all of that to Diana. And Robert hopes Diana will support him and make me want to meet his parents.
Diana and I confuse with Robert’s words. What is in Robert’s mind at that time.
“Diana, can we talk for a minute please?” Robert takes Diana to talk.
Robert and Diana go a little far from me and talk.
I don’t know what they are talking about now. And they let me be alone here.
After some minutes then they come back to me.
“Caramella, please meet my parents for a while. It’s fine with both dresses. They will no ask about that.” Robert keeps trying.
“emm..Car, seems it’s fine if we meet his parents first.” Now Diana also thinks the same with Robert.
What happens with Diana why she agrees with him. She disagreed before.
“Di, what happen to you? Since the first we came to here, we have talked about this but now why do you change your mind and agree with him?
“Car, you like if you can make other people happy, right?”
“yes. So what is the relation with this?”
“this will make other people happy. So it will not a mistake, I think, but one of a good thing to do.”
“but our dress, Di. You know well about that.”
“yes, I know. But it’s fine now. It’s not a problem.
“Di..?”
“yes, Car. We can meet his parents.”
“please..” Robert also keeps begging.
Then I decide to follow them and meet Robert’s parents. I hope what they said is right that there will not any problem will happen. But why Robert say something that a little strange. He said “the right time, he has been waiting for me”, in fact, there is Diana too. Well, ya who is invited directly is me. And he so insists us to meet his parents, and again why Diana changed her mind so soon and agree with Robert. Many questions that I have but I don’t know the answer. About Diana, maybe I can ask her and her explanation after this. But about Robert’s attitude, how can I know???
We are in front of his parents now. Bismillahirrahmanirrahim..
Then Robert is getting introduce us to his parents. Why I feel nervous…
***
... to be continued ...
#Levina R.
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