37 Missed Calls

It's been nearly seven years since Jessica met Austin. Her memories with him still linger in her mind at times, there were times when she thought of telling Justin about how much she loved Austin so that he could help her but she never did. Justin still doesn't know about her feelings towards Austin, Rachel didn't tell him neither did Jessica.

She has always seen him in news channels, that the heir of Ames group of industries is the youngest and the most successful business man who is ruling the business world today. He was twenty two years old when he took over his father's company and she was in her final year at that time.

There were times when Jessica thought, what if they meet one day by any chance. Will he be the same person like he was in the school ? or will he be a different person ? These kind of thoughts often run on her mind whenever she looks at his pictures in the newspaper or in Television.

After completing her course and working in Canada country for almost three years, Jessica thought of returning back to her country. Before coming here, she applied for a job in Sanchez. After a month, she was called to present her designs and then she was selected. It has been three months since she started working in Sanchez. Sanchez is a famous clothing brand in the world. She always dreamt of meeting Sanchez. The person named Sanchez is one of the famous designers in the world. Jessica admired her since she was in sixth standard. She always buy her magazines and read them. Jessica doesn't know how Sanchez looks and how old she is now because she never showed her face unlike other designers, she keeps a low profile. One of the main reason why Jessica wanted to work in Sanchez was because of her.

Jessica was in fourth year at that time when her aunt and her uncle came to know about Justin and Rachel's relationship. Justin took Rachel to her house to ask Rachel's mother's permission to date her openly instead of hiding from their parents, Rachel mother happily agreed to it. Justin and Rachel knew that they wouldn't be able to hide their secret from their parents for a long time so they thought of letting them know before itself. The news spread like a wildfire by the time he reached his home.

Rachel's mother Clara called Jessica's aunt and told her whatever happened as soon as he left after dropping Rachel at her home. There was no need for Justin to ask for his parents permission to let him date her. Jessica's aunt was very happy when she came to know about them. They both actually planned to marry after turning twenty six but my aunt had different plans for them. She wanted them to marry as soon as possible and they had to agree with her at the end. Jessica had a small hope that Austin would come to his best friend's wedding. But he didn't. That was the time when he took over his father's company so he didn't attend their marriage. That day Jessica felt that she lost my chance again. She returned to the place where she work the very next day after the wedding took place.

After gaining three years of experience in fashion designing and working hard since three months in Sanchez, she finally got the opportunity to try her designs on the models where her company will be presenting her designs in the fashion show which is in the month of June. Rachel is excited more than Jessica, she is excited to buy things for Jessica's new house too. They planned to go today for shopping but couldn't go because of the heavy rain. Jessica thought of cleaning her room and sleep but ended up going through her old diary. She felt nostalgic after reading this diary which she wrote when she was a teenager.

Jessica still have the paper he gave her that day.

It is still on the wall like it was years ago. She decided to leave few things here in her room as they were and she know that her mother won't change her room when she shift to her new house. The reason she was shifting to her new house is because her home is very far from the place she work. Hence, Jessica thought of shifting to a house which is ten minutes away from my work place.

I was already dark and she has no idea what time it was now. She has been reading her diary since morning and even skipped her meal. She searched for her phone and found it under the towel which left on her bed after coming out of the bathroom. She saw her phone, it was seven in the evening and there were more than twenty missed calls from Rachel. She put her phone in silent without realising after talking to Rachel. She doesn't even know when the rain stopped pouring.

Jessica phoned Rachel back and heard scolding her for not taking up Rachel's calls.

"Open the door," she said on the phone and ended the call.

Rachel was worried since Jessica didn't take her calls since morning and hence she came to Jessica's home to check on her.

Jessica went to the living room to unlock the door before she could open the door completely Rachel barged in and yelled at Jessica again.

"I'm sorry. I was busy, " Jessica said.

Rachel took twenty minutes to calm down. After she was fine, Jessica told her what she did the entire day.

Rachel knows that Jessica used to write a diary and Jessica thought that she doesn't know the password to unlock it.

"I remember this diary, it was your birthday present right? you wrote it whenever you were free and it was mostly about Austin and you," she said looking at the diary which Jessica locked it after reading.

"Oh please. I wrote about you and Justin too," Jessica corrected her.

"I'm starving let's eat something," Jessica said and was about to take the diary from her.

Before she could take it from her, she saw her trying the password to unlock it, Jessica thought she won't be able to open it but she did. She unlocked it and looked at Jessica with a mischievous smile on her face.

"So, my guess was right, your password is Austin's Birthday," Rachel giggled.

"How did you even guess it ?" Jessica asked her in surprise.

"Because I know you Jess," Rachel said .

"Fine, since you know me give it back to me," Jessica said.

She shook her head and opened the first page and read it out loud only to embarrass Jessica. Jessica was in tenth when she wrote that first page.

Rachel continued to laugh till she read the last line of the first page of her diary. Jessica took it back from her to stop her reading further. It wasn't because she wanted to hide it from her. It's just that she didn't want to get teased by her.

After taking it from her, Jessica placed it in the wardrobe and locked it.

"Jess ," Rachel said holding Jessica's hand and Jessica knew what she was going to tell her.

"I know. I need time Rach," Jessica replied.

"Jessica you don't have time, you have only two options. One is to meet him and second is to forget him which you can't do," Rachel said.

"Meet and say what ? that I like him? it would be really awkward to tell a person that you like him as soon as you meet him, that too after seven years," Jessica said.

She sighed and said," you do know that your parents have someone in their mind to give your hand, right ?" Rachel said.

Rachel's words pricked Jessica's heart.