CHAPTER THREE

The Stranger on the Phone

December had become strangely quiet.

Amara still went to work every morning, still laughed with the girls and still tried to convince everyone around her that she was okay. But when she got home, the silence seemed louder than before.

Vince was gone.

Not just away.

Gone in a way that made Amara realize she had no idea what their marriage had meant to him.

She tried not to think about it.

During the week, work kept her busy. Her colleagues made her laugh, even when she didn't feel like laughing, and sometimes she stayed longer at work just because she didn't want to go home.

But the weekends were different.

There was too much time to think.

Too much time to remember his face on that video call.

Too much time to wonder how he could look so happy while she was falling apart.

One Friday evening, Amara was lying on her bed, scrolling endlessly through her phone.

She was bored.

Not the normal kind of bored.

The kind where you didn't actually want to do anything, but you also couldn't stand sitting alone with your thoughts.

She opened one app.

Closed it.

Opened another.

Then she came across an online dating app.

She stared at the screen.

"Why not?"

She laughed quietly at herself.

She wasn't looking for love.

She wasn't looking for another husband.

After what Vince had done, the last thing Amara wanted was another serious relationship.

She was simply bored.

Maybe she wanted someone to talk to.

Maybe she wanted to feel like there was still a world outside the mess she was living in.

So she created an account.

She chose a few pictures, filled in some basic information and uploaded her profile.

Then she put the phone beside her.

She barely expected anything.

A few minutes later, her phone buzzed.

Then again.

And again.

Amara picked it up.

"Already?"

She opened the app.

There were messages from strangers.

Some made her laugh.

Some made her immediately roll her eyes.

Some were so forward that she deleted them without replying.

Then one conversation caught her attention.

She replied.

The man responded almost immediately.

Their conversation was surprisingly easy.

They joked about random things.

He asked what she was doing.

She told him she was lying in bed.

He teased her about being boring.

She told him he was the one who had messaged her first.

The conversation continued.

Before she realized it, an hour had passed.

Then two.

Amara looked at the time and shook her head.

She couldn't remember the last time she had talked to someone for that long without thinking about Vince.

Eventually, he asked her name.

"Amara."

A few seconds passed.

Then his reply appeared.

Beautiful name.

She smiled.

She hadn't expected that.

Then she asked him the same question.

"What's your name?"

His answer came quickly.

Justin.

Amara saved his number under the name he had given her.

Justin.

She didn't question it.

Why would she?

She had met him on a dating app. He was still a stranger.

They continued chatting.

At first, Amara kept everything light.

She didn't tell him about Vince.

She didn't tell him about the wedding.

She didn't tell him about the drinking.

She didn't tell him about the way she sometimes cried herself to sleep.

She simply enjoyed talking.

For once, she didn't have to explain herself.

Justin didn't know her as someone's wife.

He didn't know Vince's family.

He didn't know what people at work thought about her.

To him, she was simply Amara.

And somehow, that felt freeing.

A few days later, their conversations became more frequent.

Morning messages.

Afternoon jokes.

Late-night calls.

Sometimes they talked about serious things.

Other times, they talked about absolutely nothing.

One night, Justin noticed the change in her voice.

"You sound sad."

"I'm not."

"You are."

Amara smiled.

"You don't know me well enough to know that."

"I've been talking to you enough to know when you're pretending."

She became quiet.

Nobody had noticed that before.

Or maybe people had noticed but never asked.

"Bad day?" he asked.

"Something like that."

"Want to talk about it?"

Amara hesitated.

She wasn't ready.

"Maybe another time."

"Okay."

He didn't push.

That surprised her.

Most people wanted answers immediately.

Justin simply changed the subject and made her laugh.

And Amara found herself grateful for that.

As the weeks passed, she began looking forward to his calls.

She would never admit it.

Not even to herself.

But whenever her phone lit up with his name, there was a small smile waiting on her face.

Her colleagues noticed too.

One afternoon, one of the girls caught her smiling at her phone.

"Who's that?"

Amara immediately locked her screen.

"No one."

"Nobody makes you smile like that."

"I'm just talking to someone."

"Someone?"

Amara laughed.

"Yes."

"A man?"

"Maybe."

The girls burst out laughing.

For the first time in weeks, Amara laughed with them instead of forcing herself to.

She didn't know what Justin was becoming in her life.

She wasn't calling it a relationship.

She wasn't calling it love.

She wasn't even sure she trusted him completely.

But he was becoming familiar.

Comfortable.

A small part of her everyday life.

There was only one thing she didn't know.

Justin wasn't actually Justin.

The man she had met through the dating app had given her a different name.

His real name was Liam.

And Amara wouldn't discover that immediately.

For now, she knew him only as Justin.

A stranger who had entered her life because she was bored one December evening.

A stranger who had no idea how broken she was.

And a stranger who had no idea that, in just a few months, they would finally meet face-to-face.

March 25, 2023.

But that day was still months away.

For now, Amara simply waited for her phone to ring.

And somewhere along the way, she stopped wondering whether Justin would call.

She started wondering when he would.