Calibra: A Delayed Taste
CALIBRA | CHAPTER 61

It has been a long time since Ibra took off her stall with Shireen, Ben has quite forgotten the woman's face. This is the first time Ben has met Shireen after many years of friendship with Ibra.

The woman was still just as simple, her figure as a teacher was so clear in one look. His humble face reflects enough that he is a learned man.

But of all that, the interesting thing in Ben's eyes is his interaction with Ibra. Shireen looked stiff as if they were strangers who had never met before. Moreover, Ibra who is so formal when talking to Shireen seems to show the relationship between the two who are one hundred percent stretched after divorce.

Ben does not know the story of Ibra in the past, he knows Ibra since they were both appointed as paspampres, as well as Ben who refused to interfere too much with people's problems. He was only happy to tease Ibra's composure without even knowing the complicated relationship the man was having.

As of now, Ben was silent and according to when Ibra told him to accompany the woman who was none other than his ex-wife. The man gets a turn to test the car until it leaves them both in awkwardness.

Ben who belongs to humble suddenly clumsily in front of Shireen. He was just confused to face a situation where he had to get involved in the middle of the two people.

"Where are tutoring?" Ben tried to start the conversation.

Shireen who was originally circulating automatic gaze turned to look at Ben. He smiled, answering the man. "It's still around here, Mas. That's why I can see it because it happened to pass by. By the way what's the show, huh, Mas?"

"Oh, this is a test program of electric cars newly launched by the Indonesian branch of automotive company, Mba. It just so happens that we're the paspamres who are the examiners."

"Oh ..." Shireen nodded as she muttered long. "Why should the paspampres?"

Ben answered with a guyonan. "Maybe because our guts are stronger, hahaha."

Hearing that Shireen also chuckled at the smile. Unlike his work that reflects a stern attitude, Ben looks more humorous than he seems.

Ibra got out of one of the cars. He chatted briefly with the developer of the car, then walked over to Shireen and Ben.

"When do you want to go home?" ibra asked Shireen.

Shireen was a little jumped at the question. "Eh, that's me waiting for the bus" he said nervously.

Ibra looks flat, and that makes Shireen uncomfortable.

Suddenly Ben interrupted. "But the bus passed by, Mba."

Ibra and Shireen looked at him.

"Seriously, Mas?"

Ben nodded along with the ringisan. This made Shireen confused for a moment. If the bus has passed, he must ride a bulge or even a gocar.

"Oh, yes I don't papa, I'll order ojek aja."

"No need, I will deliver, anyone I want to talk to you about" said Ibra.

Later that evening, as promised, Ibra drove Shireen home. He borrowed Ben's bike, while Ben himself volunteered to ride.

Neither Ibra nor Shireen spoke on the way. Until a while before they reached Shireen's house, Ibra stopped the bike and asked Shireen to come down first to talk.

Shireen stood awkwardly staring at Ibra who was sitting sideways on the motorcycle seat. The view of the man was serious, of course what he wanted to talk about was no trivial matter.

Ibra cleared her throat, then took and exhaled before opening her mouth. He then looked at Shireen who was ducking as soon as he looked.

"I'm sorry, maybe these few days my attitude has made you uncomfortable. I'm not angry with you, I am .. just angry at our circumstances," he said.

Ibra looked straight at the asphalt at her feet with a meaningless look. He continued to talk. "Our circumstances are somehow getting harder and harder for me to live. I'm not sincerely Kenan's father, but I'm struggling with that too."

Ibra looked back at Shireen. This time Shireen wants to look up to Ibra. "Is Mas Ibra talking about Audi?"

Silent. Ibra did not answer. Shireen already knew from his heart that his guess was correct.

"It's not entirely Audi-related, because actually we need to talk about it as best we can."

"I have a life, you have a life. You have Kenan for you to look after, and I also have Audi to take care of his feelings. I did promise Rega to take care of you, it's all inseparable from the financial support she gave."

Shireen was clueless. "What do you mean by Ibra?"

A few seconds Ibra was silent until later she told Shireen the truth. "Rega left me insurance money to use to support you and Kenan."

"All the money I gave you belonged to Rega. He tipped it at me for fear that if you were the one holding it straight, you could not avoid your mother's greed. Rega saved desperately for it. He said the money had been collected since school from part-time work. I think it's natural for Rega to be so guarded about his money, because maybe he's also afraid that his money is being used for something outside of necessity."

"Rega loves you and Kenan so much that he has prepared future benefits for you. I salute him for the way he manages financially. If seen and thought maybe his income so far is not much, but we do not know how often he set aside his efforts to be a fairly large amount of nominal."

"You should be grateful to have a husband like Rega. He's not a poor man, he's just trying to make it simple so you don't have any trouble in the future, even after he's gone."

Shireen didn't know what to say. New facts about Rega that Ibra just revealed make Shireen's feelings change. Rega had thought about it, and Shireen felt that she was the most selfless woman because she had betrayed her husband's feelings by hoping for Ibra.

Rega's often upset mother's shadow made Shireen want to cry. She was truly an evil woman for letting go when the man was bullied and humiliated to such an extent. Had Shireen tried harder to defend the man, maybe Shireen would not have felt this way to Rega who was gone.

"I don't mind keeping Kenan for Rega, I can make sure Kenan gets the best education when he grows up. But, from now on I might not be able to visit and visit him as often as usual. I hope you can make Kenan understand, and know about the meaning of two people who have separated. No matter how much I have a future to fight for, I don't want something long expected to just disappear. For that there must be one that is sacrificed, right? Instead of preferring Audi and leaving Kenan, Kenan will remain the most important point of my life, but maybe the priorities are different. I hope you can accept my decision, Shireen."

Shireen was sculpting, just as the sun was setting out to the contest, Shireen's feelings also suddenly burst out leaving behind a handful of defeated hearts before struggling.

Ibra had already decided, it meant the man was very serious about owning Audi.

Kenan, Mama's sorry, son. You must sincerely release Ibra's father to fight for his new life.