51

“Za- Zachary?”

I looked at him stunned and startled to see him all of a sudden before me. He pushed himself up and squatted in his position looking up at me with widened eyes as if like me he was shocked to find me standing before him. It felt as though I had left him just yesterday but the facial hair which I had never seen before in his face, eye bags as if he had not slept for days and the emptiness in his eyes proved me that it had been so many days since I had met him.

“Ju-Juliette?” he voice. Oh, his raspy yet husky voice reached my ears and it was enough to break me out of my step proving that I wasn’t dreaming. The man was right before me, with his knees down and head up looking at me. The man was real.

But the disbelief look in his eyes and his facial expression shocked me because it was probably the first time ever when I was actually seeing some expressions in his face apart from the regular stoic, stern expression.

What is he even doing here?