Velma wasn't trying to see him again. She'd only come to drop off a gift for her engagement party. Thirty minutes max . A quick smile,quick hug, and she would go back home but time had a different sense of timing. Yet again,she saw Daniel before her. Kr was standing by the drinks table in a Navy blue suit. But this time,she saw someone else with him,it was Olivia. Velma's ex-coursemate . Her head was rested on Daniel shoulder as she nudged him playfully. When velma saw this, her heart twisted but it wasn't jealousy,it was grief . They hadn't saw her yet. So she stood there,tucked partly behind the flower arrangements near the hall entrance, clutching the small wrapped gift like it was some kind of emotional armour. She watched Olivia say something, watching Daniel smile at het in that soft attentive way. The same way he used to look at Velma when she got too lost in her thoughts. The way a person looks when they are listening with not only their ears but their heart. Velma blinked, suddenly it was four years ago, before the silence, before the panic, before she learned how easily love could become a ghost.
"Velma?",the voice came from behind,when she looked back, Daniel's eyes found hers. And the world stopped for a long breathless second.
He look stunned. Olivia followed his gaze and froze too. Velma smiled politely. She gave a soft wave,nodded once and walked straight past them because there was nothing to say,atleast not here and not with her standing by him.
She waited for the engagement party to come to an end and then left for her house.