Chapter 2 The woman at the traffic light junction

"Ding!'

A message sound came into the phone on the table. Ava looked at it, it was a chat from her best friend Liam.

"Ava, can you please meet me at the junction near your school? The one by the traffic light. I need to talk to you about something."

Ava furrowed her brow in surprise. Liam has never sent her such a message before. Not when she is at work.

'Okay. Hope there's no problem?'

She replied, hoping her best friend hasn't ran into any challenge.

"No problems, it is just something important".

"Okay, what time..?"

'11: 30A.M.'

"Okay. I will meet you there as soon as the bell chimes for lunch break. Make sure to be there by 11:30 on the dot"

She replied, and accompanied it with an emoji. Then she dropped her phone back on the table, and continued with the writing on the chalkboard.

Ava is 21 years old and she has a sixteen years old brother whom she loves more than anything. For her, he is still her nine years old Bobby! Her family is middle-classed economically. Her father is a social worker and her mother is a housewife. Ava doesn't have many friends. Actually, she has only one friend by name Liam. Liam has been her friend since childhood days, and they were very close. Their closeness made a lot of people in their neighborhood refer to them as husband and wife, but Ava only saw Liam as a best friend.

As soon as she reached the age of 20, many marriage proposals started coming for her. But she said no to everyone of them, because she thought she needed to take care of her family now that her mother suddenly fell ill of a strange disease. This decision made her parents worried. They thought Ava was stressing herself too much about the family responsibilities.

And that was partly true.

Firstly, her family was average and she had to pay the house rent on time, and always. And secondly, she always wanted to marry a person whom she loves. She believed marriage to be very auspicious, and this was one of the many reasons why she denied all the proposals. She is the only one who earns in the family, keeping two jobs to that effect. The morning job was from 7am to 2pm as a primary school teacher, and the night job was as a karaoke singer for various ceremonies.

She hated or rather feared violence, just like any other common citizen of New York. And she was thankful that she lived in a country whose defense force was strong enough to keep its citizens safe. But she was aware of some criminals or mafia groups still hanging around without fear. She wished they all get caught whenever she heard the news about them killing innocent people.

But, as far as her life was concerned, it was simple and hard. She had to work hard to satisfy her family's requirements. Her major tension was her brother's education. She was aware of the fact that she didn't have enough money to pay his enormous fees. So, she had taken debt from a lot of people. Every night, she always prayed to God for a miracle to happen, which will take all her worries and make her life as normal as other girls'.

Liam was her childhood friend. They attended the same school. And he worked as an accountant in the same hotel where Ava worked at night. Their houses were not very far from each other, just two blocks away. Due to this, Liam always drops Ava off at night to her home, safely. He was good looking as well as had a good character. And he had a soft spot for Ava right from their childhood days. Liam knew that Ava couldn't sleep alone at night and that seemed to make him smile sometimes. They were very good friends and shared everything. But, he never crossed his line, and Ava was so grateful about that. He was aware of the fact that Ava has never been touched by any stranger intimately, let alone a man. And so he kept his distance so as not to make Ava uncomfortable.

11 : 30 AM:

Ava reached the place where Liam had asked her to meet him. It was near the traffic light. She went to the walkway and waited for him. Few minutes passed and Liam was nowhere to be seen.

'Phew Liam! Where are you?' Ava thought to herself as she was getting bored standing there all by herself.

She boringly looked down the street, and saw a street dog sitting a few meters away from her. She smiled and whistled at the dog. And the dog's ear perked up. The dog looked towards her and Ava whistled again. The dog stood up and came towards her waving it's tail. Ava had always been in love with dogs, but couldn't own one because she couldn't afford it. She patted the dog on the head and then on it's back. Seeing her doing that, other dogs on the street came up too. Now there were about six dogs around her. They all started snuggling her legs and she played with all of them. There was a pack of biscuits in her bag, Ava brought it out and gave them to the dogs one by one. The biscuits were supposed to be the lunch she bought for herself. But she gave them to the dogs.

They are Street dogs, nobody makes out time to feed them. Ava thought to herself

*******"""

The red signal at the traffic light made the cars on the street stop. RoughCoin's car was the first one on the lane. He looked out the window and saw a woman playing with some dogs. The sun shone perfectly over her petite body, making her so adorable to behold. Just like a well carved portrait on display.

The woman had long hair and fine height. The dogs also seemed to really like her. RoughCoin always had a liking for dogs too, and he himself had two German shepherds. He never knew a woman was able to play with dogs. All the women he knew, even his own sister were terribly afraid of dogs. But here he saw this woman, playing with street dogs as if they were her own dogs.

Fearless!

He saw her smile at the dogs and only realized that a smile had escaped his own lips. He was stunned by this. No other person had ever made him smile, other than of course his sister. He had a very hard childhood, and that had made him a very cold man. He was regarded as an emotionless person who never cared for anyone. But deep down, he was just as normal as anyone. The only thing is, this other part of his personality was hidden. And nobody dared to bring that soft part of his life out. Not even his sister.

But, seeing this young woman so happy, made him want to be with her that instant. He saw her through his tinted car window. The red light turned to green, motioning the cars to move. The driver started the car but he stopped him.

"Is something wrong, boss!" Max asked looking worried. He always respected RoughCoin like a father, brother, and friend. He could do anything for him, even kill or get killed for his sake.

"No! Nothing is wrong. Just wait for a while here!" RoughCoin replied indifferently in a low husky voice.

He wanted to look at that woman for some more time. She gave him peace, somewhere deep in his heart. And he was amazed by that. How can a fragile looking girl like her bring such a feeling to his heart? RoughCoin thought.

The car behind them started horning at them, asking them to move. The driver looked at RoughCoin for permission but he didn't say anything. The driver didn't say or do anything too, after all, he loved his life. RoughCoin never thought twice about killing someone if they were found guilty. And insulting him or questioning him, was a part of crime according to his crime book.

Listening to the sound of the horn, RoughCoin saw the girl turned around. The way her hair flipped due to the gentle wind, made his junior go crazy. This was one thing that had never happened to RoughCoin before. No woman had ever made him get aroused, especially by their mere presence.

Who is she, he wondered.

The sound of the horn increased and he saw the girl looking straight towards his car, and towards him. He saw her mildly shrug and turn her attention again towards the dogs. When she looked at him through the tinted window, which was obvious that she couldn't see him, but RoughCoin could see her face very clear, his heart skipped a beat. For that moment he became self-conscious and then he realized that it was of no use, as she couldn't see him.

The horn was blowing furiously now. This time he turned to look who the hell it was. Then he asked the driver to move.

'If only I could have seen her for a little longer.' He thought still looking at her from the rearview mirror as the car moved away.