The Guy She Never Met

BONUS CHAPTER 2: I love her

Hmm...red or black? Why is it so confusing to me?

I'm online shopping for Christmas. Especially shopping for Liza. I can't choose between the red bag and the black bag.

First I thought about gifting jewellery but then who doesn't give jewellery to their girlfriend?

Girlfriend...I like it.

But I plan on giving it on her birthday.

I heave a sigh. Do the colours even matter? I'll give her kisses all day and she'll be red.

Argh. This is so hard!

I have to choose one. Red, black, red, black, red, bla—

"Where is she?!" Anna barges into my office, without knocking.

"Who?" I ask her.

"Beth. She's not picking up my calls. She's missing since morning." Anna informs me.

My whole life just stopped right there. Liza's missing?

My Liza? Missing?

"What?!" I'm shocked. My Liza can't go missing. She can't.

I take deep breaths and try to calm myself. "I'm sure she'll be back soon. Try to calm down." I assure her.

"Calm?! Calm my ass! She's been gone since five in the morning. She didn't even leave a message!" Anna walks back and forth in front of my table.

Gone since five? No message? But she was talking to me normally last night. What happened?

"A–Are–Are you sure? I mean you do get up late and must have misunderstood the time—"

"Oh shut up! I've been up ever since I heard the door close, that was exact five." Anna tells me.

My Liza's missing? Gone? How? She can't be gone. She was perfectly happy last night. I could hear it in her sweet voice.

What if...memories of the night of our supposed meeting comes up. Liza, dark alley, brok— No. Think positive Eric. Think positive.

"How can it be possible? Did you call the cops? Her parents? Relatives? The cafe? Everywhere?" I ask her. I have started to feel panic.

"I checked the cafe. Kathy is worried. No, I haven't called her parents because I thought she would be here and I don't want them to be worried."

"Well she's not here. Where is she?"

*****

It's been eight fucking torturous hours and she's still gone.

We've called the cops but they said they can't file a missing report since it's not been twenty four hours.

Twenty four hours my ass.

Currently all of us are back at her apartment. Anna can't stop throwing tantrums and hasn't stopped crying for the past two hours. Kathy is trying her best to calm her down. My father is constantly on the phone, hoping he would give us some information. Mark is also trying to console Anna, but we know it's hopeless.

I...I...I don't know about myself. I went to all the places she could have gone to, fired my private investigator and rehired him again, called everybody she knows, visited the places again, but nothing.

I am sitting on the couch, staring at nothing. What went wrong with us? Was it my fault that she left without saying anything to anybody? Everything was going fine. We had our sixth date in three weeks, stolen kisses in my office and the unnoticed side glances. It was perfect. Or did I miss something important?