The One Who Comes Around Too Often
It was 5:23 when Raveena Dirga Pramesti finally gave up on the last paragraph on her computer screen.
She had read the same sentence six times.
Still terrible.
Not because the writer couldn't write, but because the male lead in the manuscript had just said he was willing to leave everything behind for a woman he'd known for four days.
Four days.
Raveena stared at the screen with a blank expression.
“If four days are enough to leave your whole life behind, then your life couldn't have been all that important,” she muttered.
From the desk across from her, Mirel Adhisti looked up.
“What?”
“Not you.”
“I know it's not me. I'm just wondering who you're insulting now.”
Raveena turned her chair slightly and pointed at the computer screen.
“The main character.”
Mirel immediately nodded as if she understood everything. “Oh. That explains it.”
“You haven't even read it.”
“I know what you look like when you're annoyed with a manuscript.”
Raveena turned back to the screen.
The Typing Room office was starting to empty out. Several desks had been vacant for half an hour already. Nadena had left early to see the dentist, while Reyhan had disappeared into the meeting room that afternoon and still hadn't reappeared.
Through the large windows on the right side of the room, the last of the sunlight slanted across the old buildings on Karetiga Street.
Below, the sound of traffic mingled with the clatter of shop owners lowering their roll-up doors one by one.
Raveena saved her document.
“Done?”
“For today.”
Mirel leaned back in her chair. “Finally. I thought you were going to sleep here.”
“So did I.”
“And then?”
“Then I remembered the company doesn't pay overtime.”
Mirel laughed.
Raveena turned off her monitor, straightened the two sheets of notes beside her keyboard, and put them in the drawer.
She always did the same things before leaving.
The desk had to be clean.
Her glass had to go to the break room.
Documents had to be put away.
There was no special reason.
She just didn't like leaving things messy.
“Rave.”
“Hm?”
Mirel was already standing, sliding her laptop into her bag.
“You going to Three Chairs?”
Raveena nodded. “Probably.”
“Alone?”
The question made her hand pause as she was about to put her phone in her bag.
She looked over.
Mirel had put on an innocent face.
Too innocent.
“Why?”
“No reason.”
“Mirel.”
“I was just asking.”
“You never look like that when you're just asking.”
“What’s wrong with my face?”
“You look like someone who already has a conclusion before asking the question.”
Mirel smiled.
Raveena knew immediately.
“Don't start.”
“I haven't said anything.”
“Good.”
“But if someone happens to show up later—”
“Mirel.”
“Okay.”
She raised both hands.
Raveena grabbed her bag.
They went downstairs together via the narrow staircase connecting the second floor of The Typing Room office to the bookstore below.
Some of the store lights had already been turned off. Only the register area and the new-book shelves were still lit.
When they stepped outside, the evening air of Jantara greeted them with a combination of dust, heat that hadn't completely faded, and the smell of food from the stalls in the neighboring buildings.
Karetiga Street always looked a little tired toward nightfall.
Office workers headed toward the bus stop.
Couriers stopped by the side of the road to check their addresses.
Shop owners swept their porches.
A pair of schoolchildren stood in front of the stationery shop, arguing about something or other.
Nothing special.
Raveena liked that.
A place that didn't demand anyone feel impressed.
Mirel stopped beside her motorcycle.
“I'm heading home.”
Raveena nodded.
“Don't be late tomorrow. Reyhan said the briefing's at nine.”
“I'm never late.”
“Last Tuesday?”
“Traffic.”
“Whose room?”
Raveena stared at her.
Mirel burst out laughing before putting on her helmet.
“Bye, Rave.”
“Go.”
Mirel's motorcycle disappeared among the traffic.
Raveena walked in the opposite direction.
Three Chairs was only about a hundred meters from the office.
Its sign was small, and the paint had already started fading at one corner. From outside, the place looked more like a coffee stall that happened to have wooden tables than a café like the ones cropping up in central Jantara.
That was exactly why Raveena liked it.
She pushed open the glass door.
The little bell above it rang.
Luni, standing behind the register, immediately turned around.
“Rave.”
“Hm.”
“The usual?”
“The usual.”
“Iced milk coffee, half sugar.”
Raveena pointed at her. “You're getting dangerous.”
Luni chuckled. “I have it memorized.”
Raveena chose the table by the window.
Table number five.
Not because it was the most comfortable, but because from there she could see the street without sitting too close to the door.
She took out her phone.
There were four notifications.
Two from the office group chat.
One message from Savia.
And one from a number whose name she no longer needed to read to recognize.
Gavian.
Raveena stared at the screen a little longer than she should have.
The message had been sent seven minutes ago.
Still at the office?
She typed a reply.
Just left.
Three dots appeared almost immediately.
Heading to the café?
Raveena frowned.
“Did you put a tracker on me?”
The reply came quickly.
Didn't need to. Your habits are easy to guess.
Raveena almost smiled.
Almost.
She set her phone on the table without replying again.
Luni came over with her drink.
“Here you go.”
“Thanks.”
Before Luni could turn around, the café door opened again.
The bell rang.
Raveena didn't need to look.
She didn't know when she'd started recognizing someone's footsteps.
A completely useless skill, in her opinion.
But when a voice sounded near the register, she knew her guess had been right.
“Black coffee. Just a little ice.”
Luni answered lightly.
“Just go to table five. She's already here.”
Raveena closed her eyes for a moment.
Betrayal.
A few seconds later, the chair across from her was pulled out.
Gavian Raditya Lesmana sat down as if the chair had always belonged to him.
His white shirt was rolled up to the elbows. No tie. His hair was slightly messier than usual.
He set his phone on the table.
“You look tired.”
Raveena looked at him.
“Is that your greeting?”
“An observation.”
“A bad one.”
“Then it's accurate.”
“Then you're annoying.”
Gavian smiled faintly.
There was one thing Raveena hated about that man.
He rarely laughed out loud.
Most of his reactions were just small smiles, the slight lift of a corner of his mouth, or a subtle change in his gaze.
As a result, simple things felt like something he gave only to certain people.
Though maybe that wasn't true.
Raveena knew that.
She always tried to remember it.
“You came from the office?” she asked.
Gavian nodded.
“Just finished a meeting.”
“Isn't your office far away?”
“Kind of.”
“Then what are you doing here?”
Gavian looked at her for a moment.
A simple question.
The answer should have been simple too.
Instead, the man said, “I'm hungry.”
Raveena glanced at the small menu lying on the table.
“They don't have food at Sagara?”
“They do.”
“Then that's a lousy excuse.”
“Do I need a good one?”
“You do if the trip takes almost forty minutes.”
Gavian was silent for a few seconds.
Then he shrugged.
“I was already here.”
Raveena stared at him expressionlessly.
Gavian stared back.
Neither of them said anything.
Raveena finally turned her gaze toward the window.
Conversations like this had been happening too often lately.
Simple questions that got half-answers.
Sentences that could be considered ordinary as long as you didn't think about them for too long.
That was the problem.
Raveena had started thinking about them too often.
Luni brought Gavian his coffee.
“Want something to eat?”
“An order of toast.”
“Chocolate?”
“Cheese.”
Luni jotted it down and left.
Raveena raised an eyebrow.
“You always order chocolate.”
“I'm bored of it.”
“You can get bored?”
“Why not?”
“I don't know. I thought your life was too orderly for you to get bored.”
Gavian slowly rotated his coffee glass.
“Does it look that way?”
“More or less.”
“Then you're wrong.”
There was a slight shift in his voice.
Not serious enough to call him gloomy.
But enough to make Raveena stop joking.
She had known Gavian for almost nine months.
They'd first met because Karsa & Rekan was handling business consulting for a distribution company that wanted to publish a history of the company. The Typing Room got the editing project.
Their first meeting had been ordinary.
So had their second.
The third had lasted a little longer.
Once the project was finished, their communication should have ended too.
It didn't.
She couldn't remember who had started it.
Not really.
What she knew was that Gavian now knew her coffee order.
Raveena knew Gavian didn't like papaya.
Gavian knew Raveena was least willing to answer phone calls after nine at night.
Raveena knew the man always turned off his office group-chat notifications on weekends.
Little things.
Unimportant things.
Precisely because they were unimportant, Raveena didn't know when everything had started to feel too close.
“How's Talitha?”
The name slipped out before she could consider whether she needed to ask.
Gavian stopped playing with his glass.
“Fine.”
A short answer.
Raveena nodded.
Talitha.
The woman who had been with Gavian for almost six years.
Raveena had met her twice.
Beautiful.
Calm.
Not very talkative, but always knew when to join a conversation.
The worst part was that Talitha was nice to her.
The second time they met, she had even offered Raveena a ride when it started to rain.
That was why Raveena sometimes felt annoyed with herself.
If Talitha were unpleasant, maybe everything would be easier.
But life was rarely that kind.
“Are you two going to her family's event this weekend?” Raveena asked.
Gavian nodded slowly.
“Probably.”
“Probably?”
“Yeah.”
“Your answers get more convincing every day.”
“I don't know yet.”
Raveena stirred the ice in her glass even though the sugar had definitely dissolved by now.
“If she heard you answer like that, she might kill you.”
“Talitha isn't that scary.”
“I know.”
Gavian looked at her.
“Do you like her?”
Raveena frowned. “What kind of question is that?”
“Just asking.”
“She’s nice.”
“That isn't an answer.”
“Does there have to be another answer?”
Gavian fell silent.
Raveena suddenly felt the conversation moving toward somewhere she didn't want it to go.
She set down her straw.
“Why?”
“No reason.”
“Don't start using Mirel's answers.”
“What did Mirel say?”
“A lot. Most of it wasn't important.”
Gavian smiled again.
The toast arrived and saved the conversation.
For the next few minutes, they talked about work.
The terrible manuscript Raveena was editing.
Gavian's client, who changed the presentation three times in one day.
Mr. Yamin, who had raised the prices on several menu items without changing the prices on the board.
An ordinary conversation.
Very ordinary.
Until Raveena could almost convince herself that was all their relationship was.
Two people who happened to feel comfortable talking to each other.
Nothing more.
At 6:30, Gavian's phone vibrated.
The screen lit up on the table.
Raveena hadn't meant to look.
But the name was right there.
Talitha calling.
Gavian's hand stopped.
For only a fraction of a second.
But Raveena saw it.
“Answer it,” she said.
Gavian picked up his phone.
“Just a second.”
He stood and walked out of the café.
Through the window, Raveena could see Gavian standing near the sidewalk with the phone pressed to his ear.
She couldn't hear the conversation.
She didn't need to.
Raveena lowered her head.
The ice in her glass was almost gone.
Suddenly, she didn't want to be there.
The feeling came so quickly that it irritated her.
She hated herself when she got like this.
As if Gavian had done something wrong just by answering a call from the woman who had every right to call him whenever she wanted.
Raveena opened her messaging app.
Mirel: Did you run into the person who “just happened” to stop by?
Raveena immediately typed back.
You have way too much free time.
Mirel's reply appeared.
So there is someone.
Raveena didn't answer.
A few minutes later, Gavian came back in.
“I have to go.”
Raveena nodded. “Yeah.”
The man took out his wallet.
“I'll pay first.”
“You don't have to pay for mine.”
“I know.”
Raveena gave him a flat look.
Gavian chuckled.
After paying, he returned to the table only to pick up his phone and car keys.
“You going in tomorrow?”
Raveena frowned.
“Tomorrow's a workday, Gavi.”
“I know.”
“Then?”
“Nothing.”
Strange.
Raveena watched him.
Gavian looked like he was about to say something.
He didn't.
“Don't get home too late.”
Then he left.
The doorbell rang once more.
Raveena remained seated.
Through the window, she watched Gavian walk toward the end of the street.
Five seconds.
Ten.
Until the man's back disappeared among the passing people.
Only afterward did Raveena realize one thing.
Gavian hadn't finished his coffee.
She stared at the half-full glass across the table.
A simple object that shouldn't have meant anything.
And yet the empty chair in front of her felt too obvious.
Raveena let out a long breath.
“Idiot.”
Luni, who was cleaning a nearby table, turned toward her.
“Rave?”
“Not you.”
“Oh.”
Luni went back to work.
Raveena reached for her phone.
There were no new messages.
Good.
That was how it was supposed to be.
She put her phone in her bag, stood, and walked toward the register.
On the way home, she promised herself that starting tomorrow, she would keep her distance.
She wouldn't reply to messages so quickly.
She wouldn't accept invitations for coffee just because Gavian happened to be somewhere around Karetiga.
She wouldn't let the man become part of her routine.
Simple.
At least it sounded simple in her head.
Until 10:11 that night, when Raveena was lying in her room and her phone screen suddenly lit up.
One new message.
From Gavian.
I wasn't actually in Karetiga because I was hungry.
Raveena read the message once.
Then twice.
Her heart did something she really didn't like.
A second message came in before she could reply.
I just wanted to see you.
For a long time, Raveena didn't type anything.
Outside her apartment window, Jantara was still filled with the sounds of traffic.
Someone honked.
The television from the neighboring unit sounded faintly through the wall.
The world went on as usual.
Only Raveena suddenly felt that something had shifted out of place.
She stared at Gavian's name on the screen.
Then, slowly, she turned off her phone without replying.
Because for the first time since meeting the man, Raveena could no longer pretend that everything was just a coincidence.