“You still read this book?”

Chandra stopped and lifted her gaze.

Kyra was looking at the book with the maroon cover lying on the table between them. The book that Chandra had almost forgotten she had brought with her. There it lay, quiet and unassuming, in the presence of two of its past readers that had once shared its pages with their thoughts.

Kyra looked up at Chandra and smiled. It appeared to be a careful sort of smile at first, but the way her eyes glinted in the light told Chandra that she was actually… amused.

“Aha, that,” Chandra laughed, a little too nervously for her own liking. She figured it was less awkward to sit than to stand and slowly sank back into her seat. “I was just looking around the anthropology shelves and happened to find it again.”

A half-truth, but not completely a lie.

“I knew that was your handwriting,” Kyra nodded, brushing the cover of the book with one hand. “No one really reads this edition anymore, so it was either you or Nadira, but Nadira only read this book once.”

Chandra stared at the very worn edges of the book. Her heart, suddenly swelling with warmth, was unsure of what to do with the information that Kyra had recognized her handwriting. 

Of all the written words that Kyra must have encountered all these years, all the words written by countless other people, she had somehow remembered the way Chandra wrote hers.

Chandra’s mouth lifted into a hesitant smile. “Nadira did tell me about that.” Realizing that it was probably her turn to ask a question, she gestured towards the cover. “Do you um, still read this book?”

“I do, actually,” Kyra smiled. “I’m using it as a comparative text for my thesis. I found your sticky note while I was reading through it again.”

Chandra nodded, quietly wondering what had compelled Kyra to open the very back of the cover where her note had been placed. 

She wondered if, like her, Kyra had flipped through their handwritten notes in the margins, tracing the penciled memories that had faded but not disappeared over time. But she didn't have the courage to ask.

“Are you going to be in town for a while?” Kyra asked, after the pause in their conversation had hung in the air for some time.

“Oh,” Chandra mentally shook herself to focus. “Yes. I’ll be here for a few weeks until after New Year’s.”

“That is a while,” Kyra smiled. “What brings you back, if I may ask?”

“Ah, well,” Chandra cleared her throat, having anticipated this question from the people in her hometown but most definitely not Kyra. “A wedding,” she responded, and for a split second she thought she saw Kyra’s eyes flick towards the curve of her ring finger.

“My sister’s getting married,” Chandra clarified.

"Oh!" Kyra’s smile grew wider. "Kartika? Oh—please tell her my congratulations for me!”

Chandra blinked in surprise. “You remember her?”

“Of course I do,” Kyra laughed. “You used to talk about her quite a lot.”

They both paused.

The seemingly simple sentence that now hung in the air between them was enough to open the gates to memories Chandra had thought were gone for good. 

Memories of undergrad afternoons, slow evenings on the kosan roof where Kyra used to live, and of quiet meandering conversations. They slowly seeped past the iron gates from where Chandra had kept them, filling the cracks of their conversation with whispers of a past long gone, yet precious and familiar.

They both sat there for a moment. And then another.

Then Kyra slowly sucked air through her teeth and smiled. “Well, um. Since you’ll be in town for a while, I was actually wondering.” She paused for a moment, as if to give more thought to what she was about to say. “Would you happen to be busy later today?”

Chandra wasn't sure she heard her correctly. “Would I be what, sorry?”

“Busy?” Kyra looked at her, the iris of her eye catching the afternoon light.

“Oh.” So Chandra had heard her correctly. “No I, uh. I’m pretty free actually.” She wiped her palms on the knees of her jeans. “Are you… busy?”

“Well, I just need to chat with Ms. Lasma after this, but,” Kyra folded her arms on the table, pausing again before continuing. “I would love to catch up with you later. If you're interested?”

And Chandra's brain suddenly stopped functioning, all comprehension of what Kyra had just said flew out the window of her mind. Her heart held its breath, not daring to hope that Kyra had meant what Chandra thought she meant. But Kyra wasn't finished.

“If you are interested," Kyra continued. "Maybe we could meet over coffee? Or tea, if you still don't drink coffee.”

Chandra opened her mouth to respond but found that all words escaped her. There she sat, baffled that Kyra had remembered such a minute detail about her. There she sat with the revelation that the person she had avoided, the person she was so worried about offending, actually wanted to talk to her. 

Her heart gave way to something tender before she cleared her throat, steeling herself to respond.

“I’d be interested,” Chandra managed to say, offering Kyra a lopsided smile. “Tea sounds great. And coffee, if you still drink it.”

And Kyra smiled. In a way that made Chandra feel like she understood, but didn't quite know what she understood. Yet that was enough for her at the moment. 

Questions still lingered on in her mind, questions that wondered what had compelled Kyra to ask her to meet again. But for now, she was secretly grateful for the smile that was offered to her so freely from the person she hadn't seen in years.

“Is your number still the same?” Kyra asked.

“Oh, yes. It’s uh—” Chandra fumbled while taking her phone out of her pocket, showing Kyra the profile of her messaging app with her number.

Kyra took out her own phone and located Chandra's profile. “Alright, I’ll text you later.” Her smile never left her lips as she rose to leave. “I’ll see you in a bit?”

Chandra made a mental note to thank all her stars that their paths, having wounded through the roads of their lives, intersected at this exact moment in time. She smiled back at Kyra and nodded.

“I'll see you in a bit.”