The first week, their chats were nothing more than a cold conversation. Mavi was always the one texting first while Zuvi was quick to cut it off. Obviously he wanted to be her friend but she showed no interest in him.
"Good morning."
"Morning."
"How's your day?"
"Busy."
It was hardly anything, but Mavi kept trying. He sent jokes, memes, even silly observations about the weather. Sometimes Zuvi responded with a laugh, sometimes with silence.
Mavi told himself it didn't matter at all, that it was always like this, that he was just being platonic. But late at night, when he found himself checking his phone for her reply before going to bed, he knew he was lying to himself he actually enjoyed talking to her. For some weird reason that he cannot place she actually intrigued him.
She wasn't making it easy. Zuvi had this way of pulling back just when things seemed to flow. A dry reply, or nothing at all. She wasn't looking for a new friend — and definitely not for whatever it was Mavi was hoping to find.
But he pressed on. There was something about her bluntness that intrigued him.
One night, while scrolling in bed and drinking Nescafe coffee, he typed:
"You don't really talk much, do you?"
Her reply came after a minute:
"I don't like wasting time on people who don't matter at all to me."
He stared at that, unsure if it was an insult. Then he grinned, "you really surprise me Zuvi"he thought.
"Damn. So I'm in your company right, huh? How do I get promoted from 'doesn't matter at all' to 'matters just a little'?"
For the first time in a very long , she sent more than an emoji.
"Make me laugh, amuse me ."
So he tried. And when she finally sent a laughing voice note, her giggle spilling out unguarded, something in his chest tightened.
It wasn't much at all. But it was a very good start.