True Love - Lori Imdad (mobile ebook reader .TXT) 📗

True Love

A Short Story by Lori Imdad

She sat waiting for his call. They usually talked everyday, so the absence of hearing from him had created a knot in pit of her stomache. "Something's wrong," her heart kept telling her. They had been together now for four years and he would leave in a few days for a visit to his family. She glanced at the clock on her alarm clock radio. He would be at work now, at least this was his usual schedule. She didn't want to bother him at work. So, she waited. The problem was she hadn't heard from him in a couple of days. She knew he was busy shopping for his family and didn't want to be a bother.

"Knock, knock." came from the door to her studio apartment. Her heart jumped. "Was it him?" she wondered. She peeked through the peep hole. It was a friend, Richard who had come to visit. She wasn't expecting him and yet he was here. Strange. She offered him tea and cookies while she waited for Mahmud to call. They chatted about friends, his classes at UCLA. How was his sister and family, she queried.

Richard looked over at Lana and felt guilty. He and Mahmud were both from India, but he would never have done this to someone he cared about. It wasn't as if she and Mahmud were casually dating. He had nearly proposed to her, she had told Richard how Mahmud said he wanted to marry her. So, why is he leaving her to marry some girl his parents picked? It makes no sense. Richard shakes his head. She was a pretty girl, at least he thought so. "How can Mahmud do this to her?" Lorena was a petite girl of about 5'3" with Brown wavy hair and brown eyes. "Mahmud is a fool!" he thought to himself. "She is so nice and sweet," he mused, "what is wrong with Mahmud?"

"Ring, ring," the phone trilled. She jumped to answer the call. "Hello?" she spoke into the telephone. Richard knew it was Mahmud calling her. Mahmud had asked him to come here today because he would call to tell her that he was getting married to a girl back home. That her dream of a life with him just wasn't possible. His family had arranged his marriage to a girl there. It was a beneficial arrangement for both families as her family was in the same business as his.

Richard watched her absorb what Mahmud was telling her. She struggled to keep her emotions in check while she listened, but he could see her heart was breaking. Finally, she hung up the phone and turned to him. She was like a sister to him, but he waited for her to turn to him.

Richard was a student living in California while he went to school. He was a year or so younger than Lana. Even so, he felt a close bond with her and they had been friends for a couple of years now.

Finally, Lana turned a told him that Mahmud was getting married. She broke down into tears after that. "Why would Mahmud do this to me?" she asked over and over. Tears rolled down her cheeks furiously, almost as quickly as she wiped them away. Her mind accepted what her heart could not.

Richard turned to her and quietly offered to marry her himself. Lorena didn't know what to say at first. Richard was like her brother. She knew she would never be able to accept Richard that way, it could never be true love like what she had shared with Mahmud. True love? Hard to imagine it ever was right now.

Text: (c) 2010 loriimdad.com - all rights reserved
Publication Date: 01-06-2011

All Rights Reserved

Dedication:
To my family and friends, past and present for supporting me in good times and bad.