Chapter 5

Baran arrived at his apartment just after 9:00 p.m. The day began tiresomely, became enjoyable and ended with dinner at her sister's house and Leyla's regrets about the wedding.

He did not get involved in his sister's personal life, but never hid that he preferred her to marry Yusuf, the friend of the publicist who was more like Leyla than Aras, who often proved to be someone with a thought of the last century. But his sister loved him or at least thought she loved her husband, for Baran, what was left was to hear the young woman's lamentations with each crisis of the couple.

He went in and went straight to his room, needed a bath and a night's sleep to recharge. He took off his clothes, put it in the laundry basket and went under the hot water.

After 20 minutes, he got out of the shower, picked out one of his dark pajamas, put on it and went into the living room.

He turned on his notebook at the dinner table, took his reading glasses and went to reread some emails that Aisha warned would be important to him.

Baran lived on the roof of one of Istanbul's hottest buildings. The apartment and all the whole decoration was chosen by Sevda. The ex-girlfriend worked as an interior designer and the two met at a campaign launch cocktail in which she was one of those responsible.

The two began dating weeks later and Sevda followed all his career growth, and with her, he shared all his secrets. I didn't know where i was wrong, I suspected that maybe his 'too sure' way of handling things or because he didn't think about getting married so soon, i.e. not so soon, since he was almost 37. And it wasn't a relationship trauma, since he was raised by loving parents, he just didn't feel ready to make such an important commitment.

And the night he finally decided to have a life for two with Sevda, upon arriving at his apartment he found her with her bags packed, without any shame, told him that he was abandoning him because he had fallen in love with another man. All right, it was hard to be dumped by someone else, but the worst part was knowing that this other was the man i envied the most in life.

He got up and went to the living room window, watching the view of the city. From a distance you could see the lights of the great İstanbul. The publicist's thoughts were interrupted with the touch of the cell phone.

He looked at the time on the clock on the living room wall and judging by the call at that moment he was probably the mother after talking to her sister.

He took his cell phone and saw it was an unknown number for him. It was strange, but it could be some customer and then he answered.

"Good night! "The voice of a young woman on the other end of the line, surprised Baran. Who would that be?

"Good night! Do you want to talk to someone?

"Hey, a few hours after you met me and you don't remember my voice.

Only then did Baran realize who he was and get scared of the girl calling him.

"It's you, I'm sorry I didn't recognize your voice. But what happened to calling me at that time? You should be asleep.

Ana sighed on the other side of the line. I'd stay calm and not give you a bad answer.

"I'm sleepless and I called you to find out what you're doing and tell you that everything worked out with my bracelet and my parents.

Baran went to sit on the living room couch while listening to Ana narrate everything to him. The girl confessed that she had to come up with a little excuse for her mother, but that in the end everything worked out, that her friends —who he didn't remember the name—had a fight with her over going out with a stranger. After 20 minutes of bonding, where she spoke nonstop, Baran asked if anything serious had happened for her to call him.

"Anything serious? No, I just wanted to talk to yourself, or is it forbidden to call you? You told me you were single, you just missed me and your wife's on your side listening to everything.

Baran laughed at the way that girl said no, that he had no one and was just curious about the call.

"And do you need any serious reason to call someone? I thought if you wanted to talk, vent or hear someone's voice, you'd just call and that's it.

Baran knew the girl had an answer for everything and even he didn't know what to answer for everything she said.

"I was just surprised by your call and thank you for worrying about me. I'm glad to hear everything worked out for you at home.

"Well, I think I got in your way, because your voice should be busy, doing something. I'm going to hang up, but first I want to tell you that if I don't have an appointment, I'm going to an exhibition at a gallery on Thursday in the city center. If you want to keep me company, I'll be there after 7:00. I'll send you the address by text. Oh, and save my number on your cell phone, so you'll know who's calling you.

Ana said goodbye and ended the call before he could answer anything.

***

Ana had lunch with her friends and the girls talked about the first week as college girls.

It was Thursday and on Friday there would be no class because of a meeting with the college coordination.

Since Monday night, after the call to Baran, the young woman controlled her not to call or send any messages. I'd leave to pass the address of the exhibit after making sure Samia and Elçin wouldn't go with her.

"Hey, what are you thinking?

Elçin asked her friend that she was distracted.

"Nothing, I'm here reminding you that I need to finish a survey to deliver on Monday. I'm going to take advantage of the time that tomorrow we won't have class to start writing today. Do you believe that in the middle of the 21st century, the teacher asked for a handwritten summary?

"Perhaps to show that the student actually read what he wrote," Samia replied.

"Okay, let's change the subject, are you two going to the exhibition or not? Mrs. Hatice warned me that classes are coming back next week. How are we going to do this year?

The three friends took pottery classes on Wednesday afternoons and Ana, of the three, was the only one who did not have much talent for crafts.

"I'm not going, Mom invented dinner at my house, and I completely forgot. But I will send a message to Mrs. Hatice — Samia spoke and Elçin also confirmed that she would not go because she would travel to her grandparents' house.

"Gee, I'm going alone then, but I promise I'll have fun for all three.

The friends looked amazed, since Ana was not very attached in class and out of nowhere this interest in the exhibition.

"What gave you to be so excited for tonight?

What animation? I just asked a question and since neither of you are going to attend the exhibition, I just told you I'm going alone.

"Ana, don't fool us. What are you up to?

Elçin wanted to know her friend's plan, but the sign rang and the young woman said she needed to get back to the room soon.

He said goodbye to both of them, and before he came in, he went to the bathroom.

Five minutes late wouldn't kill anyone and she'd send the time and address to Baran.