Echoes of Unrequited Love

Chapter 73

Jason called again, but suddenly there was a different voice on the line.

“Yeah, I’m at Gate 3, would you mind helping me out, sir.”

“Xaviera?” came the surprised voice through the receiver, “It’s me, Darren.”

To my total shock, the person who was helping my flustered uncle find the entrance to the mall turned out to be Darren.

A short while later, when we met up, Jason, with a grateful look, told me, “He was the one who helped. The guy’s awesome.”

Darren listened to him finish his choppy sentences without caring about his stuttering and said with a gentle smile. “Sir, you’re pretty amazing yourself, but next time, remember to check the floor number, okay?”

I explained to Jason, “Darren and I are classmates.”

Jason’s face lit up with surprise and he happily said, “Really? That’s… that’s fate for you.”

Darren told me he was there to take his cousin shopping and had bumped into my lost uncle in the parking garage.

Jason had gotten stuck on the basement level.

“Xaviera, he helped me out. Let’s–let’s treat him

immediately checked with Darren, who said with a chuckle. “You know, I am actually kind of hungry. So, uncle Jason,

1

a local

asking my uncle for his opinion with every dish he ordered, and even thoughtfully ordered a cup of

a.simple, honest smile, starting off a bit stiff

instinctive inferiority complex that can surface when a common man meets someone of higher status,

was really touched inside.

join in, “Perfect, I’ve been meaning to get a coat for my dear mother as well, and Xaviera, you’ll have to lend me your eye for fashion

if my taste’s old school, Professor

Chapter 73

of us headed to

a tender pink down jacket for my aunt among the array

white as Xaviera’s.” he explained, bashfully like a young man in

was 49 this year, but to Jason, she was

twinge in my nose. “Let’s go

to try it

was Darren