El mensaje que quedó

After dinner, Daniel sat on the bed with his phone in his hand. He opened his conversation with Marta and saw many old messages. For months, he had kept those words, even though they no longer spoke.

Daniel began deleting the messages one by one. There were photos, jokes, and small plans for the weekend. Sometimes he smiled; other times, he looked at the screen without saying anything.

At last, only one message remained. It was the first one Marta had sent him: “Would you like to have coffee with me tomorrow?” Daniel read it twice. Then he pressed the delete button.

The phone asked, “Do you want to delete this message?” Daniel held his finger over the screen and breathed slowly. He could delete it too and leave that conversation behind forever.

But he could also leave it there. He looked at the time and read the question again. His thumb stayed over the button without touching it, while he thought about what he wanted to do.

Daniel lowered his finger and pressed “Cancel.” The message did not disappear. The question was still there, simple and sad: “Would you like to have coffee with me tomorrow?”

He put the phone on the bed and got up to drink some water. In the kitchen, he thought that keeping that message changed nothing. Marta was not going to write to him because of it. But deleting it could not change what had happened either.

When he returned to the room, he picked up the phone again. He opened the conversation and looked at Marta’s name. Below it was an empty space for writing a new message. Daniel touched the screen, and the keyboard appeared.

He wrote, “Hello, Marta.” Then he read those two words for a long time. He did not know if they were a greeting or an invitation to talk again.

He deleted the word “Marta,” but left “Hello” on the screen. Should he send such a small message?

Daniel looked at the word “Hello” and understood that he did not want to write to Marta that night. He did not want to send her a message just because he felt sad. He deleted the word and closed the keyboard.

Then he opened the last old message again. He read it one more time: “Would you like to have coffee with me tomorrow?” He remembered that coffee, Marta’s laughter, and the beginning of many happy days.

Daniel took a deep breath and pressed “Delete.” This time, he did not hesitate. The “Delete message” option appeared on the screen, and he confirmed it.

The conversation was empty. Daniel felt sad, but also a little calm. He was not deleting his memories; he was only stopping himself from keeping a conversation that had already ended.

He turned off the phone and left it on the bedside table. Then he went to bed. The next day, he would not have that message, but he would keep his memories and have a new space to move forward.