Chapter 5: Sacred Meeting

Scarlet’s Point of View

I reached the hotel room in a matter of minutes. When I entered the room, Max was already awake and he ran up to me immediately.

“Where were you?” He asked worriedly.

I wanted to scoff—he was just so good at acting. I sighed. “Nothing, I—I just went downstairs to take a stroll. Couldn’t sleep well, maybe it was because of the jet lag.”

He sighed. “I called you like three four times!”

“I—uh, must have kept my phone on Airplane mode,” I took it out and realized that he had indeed called me. “Well, I am fine.”

He hugged me but I didn’t hug him back well—though I still acted nicely. He pulled back and then sat on the bed.

“Are you well now?” He asked as I sat down too.

“Yeah, just a little tired. I should sleep,” I whispered. He nodded and got up while I laid down and covered myself with bedsheets.

He left me and I finally fell asleep, surrounding myself with thoughts of Xavier. I couldn’t wait for him to talk to me or meet me.

____________________________

Xavier’s Point of View

My phone buzzed and I picked it up—almost hopelessly—cause I was very sure that Scarlet would never hear my message if her faith on me had wavered, but I sat up immediately when I saw the notification from Zora: “The voice message was played by Ms. Walker at 2:07 AM, October 16th 2022.”

My breathing was uneven for some unexplained reason. A part of me wanted to know what she thought of it—but that was not my purpose behind this. I left a message because I was too weak to face the truth of what she would actually say to me in return. I was afraid of her choosing Max over me too easily, or just considering my feelings fake altogether.

I couldn’t do it: it was impossible for me to be brave enough to talk to her now.

Zora popped up with another message a few minutes later.

“Mr. Xavier, Ms. Walker intends to talk to you. I’ve installed my software on her device, allowing you to talk to her through me. Please click on the button below to connect.”

My eyes widened when I read that. She wanted to talk to me? But why—what could be the reason?

Even though It was utterly stupid of me to expect anything good from her after everything I had done, I couldn’t help but feel as if she could still not hate me as much as I deserved to be hated. It was something related to her behavior and personality, and not mine.

I was scared—but I realized that she was too, the entire time, but she held on.

After taking a deep breath, I clicked on the button—opening a normal chat window between us.

She was offline at the moment, but I decided to leave a message.

“Scarlet.”

…

I couldn’t sleep for the rest of the time. I was stressed, scared and straight up anxious. There was something weird happening with me—it felt like I was restless, waiting for her reply.

My phone suddenly buzzed and I picked it up almost immediately.

I exhaled when I saw Scarlet’s reply.

“Xavier? Is that you??”

I sat up. “Yes, Scarlet. How are you? How is it going with… Max?”

“Xavier, I need you. I need to meet you. But you can’t come here because everyone is looking for you and you wouldn’t be able to leave again so please tell me where you are.”

Reading the first four words made my heart beat fast. It was something I had yearned for a while. It was something that felt heavenly.

“Are you sure you can come here?” I texted back.

“Yes. Please, Xavier.”

“Meet me at this,” I sent her my current location. “Call me as soon as you’re here. It is not the safest place but I know you can handle yourself.”

She took a minute before replying: “I will be there before you know it.”

“I will wait. Bye, Scarlet.”

“Bye, Xavier.”

…

I smiled to myself as I kept the phone down. I was too happy for my own good—her text seemed to be so much better than expected. It was going to take some time for her to come here. I was a lot happier because she didn’t hate me—so I got up and decided to practice.

I left my stay-in place and went to the training camp to continue training my people. They could be called professionals at this point, but I didn’t have any idea if that was enough—if they were enough.

Many hours passed by when I received a call on my phone. It was from an unknown number and my heartbeat raced as I thought it was from her.

I picked it up.

“Scarlet?” I said immediately, getting away from the main arena.

“Xavier. I am here. This—this green building. Who directed this architecture, it is—” She blabbered but I cut her off.

“I am going to be there in three minutes, tops. Stay alert. Meet you soon, woman,” I rushed to the building which was almost two kilometers from my current location.

“Yeah,” She replied.

“Don’t hang up,” I said, “It is really not safe out here.”

“I am just fine, Xavier,” She replied. “Safer than I’ve been in a while.”

I exhaled.

“Are you running?” She asked and I chuckled.“For sure.”

She chuckled too. I ran even faster and I could see the building from a distance now. I slowed down a little and looked around for her.

I finally spotted her at a distance, smiling as she stood with her phone near her ear.

“Left side, woman.”

She looked at her left and saw me. Her eyes were fixed on me, her beautiful smile appeared on her lips and she ran towards me too.

The second we met she hugged me tightly and I felt the warmest I have ever felt in my lifetime. That’s when I remembered—she was the love of my life.