The following morning, I met up with Rashied. He was wearing a perfect royal blue shirt that complimented his sun kissed skin tone perfectly, and, because he knew how much I loved roses, he had a bunch of roses in his hand. We met at a coffee shop, but he insisted I go with him to his “special place”, and, when we arrived at his “special place”, I heard the sound of the tide banging against the shore.

“The beach? And what are we going to do here?” I asked.

“Did you forget what we discussed?” Rashied responded.

“Yes, I forgot,” I said, but I had not really forgotten. I just wanted to see if he still remembered.

“I promised to take you to the beach. We were going to have a picnic and, in a pure rom-com fashion, we were going to share our first kiss with the backdrop of a perfect, pink sunset,” Rashied said excitedly.

“He remembered! But it doesn’t matter,” I thought to myself. “Okay, look, let’s stop sugar-coating our previous “situationship”. I need to know why you stood me up and ghosted me after promising to meet me!” I blurted out. I just could not hold it in any longer, and I exploded like a singing kettle finally letting off steam.

Before responding, Rashied looked at me with a dumb, speechless expression on his face. “Okay, sit down, let’s talk,” he said in a serious tone. “Back then, I liked you so much it scared me. I was afraid I would never make you happy or live up to your expectations, and I wasn’t sure about who I was as an individual.”

Rashied then paused for a while, and he was gazing deeply into my eyes.

“With you, it was a feeling I had never experienced before, and I wasn’t ready,” he continued with a gloomy expression on his usually nonchalant face. “I didn’t have a stable job, I didn’t have money, I didn’t have an education, and I didn’t have self-esteem. I had nothing to offer you”.

“I never wanted you to have all those things, I wanted you. I wanted you to choose me. I wanted you to tell me we were going to make us work, no matter what. I wanted us to build a life together, side by side,” I yelled with tears in my eyes. “I waited for you to choose me for 5 whole years, and you didn’t”.

“I did!” Rashied responded. “That’s why I’m here now.”

“Now?! Well, you’re a little too late. I loved you so much, I put myself second. I stuck around, hoping you would see my worth, but you didn’t. Now you suddenly show up out of nowhere and expect me to choose you?” I said while picking up my handbag, readying myself to finally walk away and close that chapter once again.

While talking to Rashied, I knew that going through that fruitless conversation meant re-opening old deep wounds for me, and I was not prepared to go down that dark, scary road again. “I should never have come!” I thought to myself. “This conversation is over!” I said as I turned my back to walk away.

“I’m dying, Layla,” Rashied yelled out.

***

Tell us: How do you think Rashied’s news that he is dying is going to affect how our main character feels about him?