Bloody Hell!! (V-day special?)

Please read the first part (Fate and Ice cream parlour date) before you read this.

Saturday 8 am. Two days after my adventure which turned into a wet and sobby story, I was fast asleep having taken the sleep-inducing anti-allergic medicine, courtesy the cold I caught traveling in rain two days back.

And the phone rings. I hardly recall setting an alarm the previous day, for I had no reason to. Cold was one thing, but frankly, I had no enthu to wake up either. Nothing to look forward to for the day. The phone screen said.. “Susie calling..”. The fake name, to avoid friendly spying and suspicions, was obviously taken from the intelligent-and-smart-yet-cute neighbour of Calvin in C&H. After the fiasco two days back, I had decided to avoid talking to her, for my own good. But totally against my instincts, for better or for worse, (which I came to know later – for worse it was) I picked up the phone.

“Hellooo? Whats with this early morning call? --Sneeeeze!--”
“Abbe. Dhyaan se sun, am not gonna repeat it. I want to meet you today, at 10 am, somewhere in Hiranandani. I need to talk to you. Tell me some suitable place”
“Yaar, why you coming all the way down here, and why so early?”
“See. My train’s leaving today evening. So, that’s ruled out. I told my cousin’s mom that I need some documents related to GRE at Sakinaka, where that testing centre is and will get some shopping done at HN”
“Lolll.. And she fell for it?”
“Ofcourse!”
“Okay, fine. We’ll meet at the Pizza Hut. You love cheese, isn’t it? What do you want to shop for anyway?”
“Gadhe. No shoppinggg! Its to meet you”
“Ohhh, ok. See ya. Mujhe sone do abhi..”
“Kumbhkaran ka baap hai saala... chal, bye.”

Obviously, within a nanosecond of finishing that call, I had lost every shred of sleep I had. I got up, had a quick breakfast and got ready. Wore some casual clothes. I had no intention to impress. But, I still wanted to hear her side of the story. Everything was going so well. What happened? Why me? Why not me???

I met her at the Pizza Hut entrance, at HN. Reached there just 10 minutes late. She was already there. And when I saw her, for a moment I thought, I never knew her at all. She was dressed in this cute pink top, and a white frilly skirt. Gracious. Breathtaking. Any pics of hers, which she had shown me before, were in some casual jeans, tshirt. And then, it happened, she smiled. I felt my heart drop, just like I felt when I had first told her on phone that I liked her and she had simply said.. “Yeah. I know re” and grinned. Anyway, so at the pizza hut, she dragged me in and got me to order a mini double-cheese for her. I asked for a Pepsi for myself.

She looked at the menu card blankly for a while, and suddenly said in a very calm voice.. “Did I ever tell you? I think I like you too..”
My jaw dropped. I managed to utter.. “But, that day..”
She said.. “Yaar. I just could not tell you.”
“What??”
“ I haven’t had the best experience with guys in my life. I liked a guy a lot, but he left me, just like that. I was terrified and hurt. Cried for days. And everyone in my family turned very protective. But I couldn’t tell you all this, coz you’d feel sad for me. And I don’t want to see anyone, especially you, sad for me anymore.”
“Hmmm...”
“Ab kya sorry bhi bolna padega? Kitna kasht hai life mein!! ;-) ”
“Heheh.. Its fine. I did feet hurt. But I knew there must be something compelling for you to go away like that.”
“Hmmm.. ”

She was pondering over something. I could see it in her eyes. But, I didn’t dare to ask. Everything was turning out so surprising, I didn’t want to break the flow.

The pizza arrived.

And suddenly, she was back again, smiling, her usual charming self. All my doubts, apprehensions simply evaporated. Over the hot slices of pizza, she told me about how her cousin’s wedding went. How she gorged on the food there and claimed that she must have gained 5 kgs in last two days. She even talked about my projects and how I should get my lazy ass to work more often. We talked for a looong time, about everything! I realized it, so did she, that somewhere in those conversations, was hidden the reason why we were there in Pizza Hut in Hiranandani on a Saturday morning. We liked each other a lot.

It was time for her to go. As we left the pizza hut, she could see it in my eyes, I was worried about something. She said.. “What now?”. I told her.. “ It’s the distance. It scares me.” She smiled, and said.. “Dude. Three hours distance isn’t much of a distance anyway. We’ll see re..”. And she was off onto the autorickshaw back to her cousin’s place.

As I was going back to IIT, I sms’ed her.. “Bloody hell! Now, things get interesting!!”

Within a minute, my phone buzzed back,
Her reply? “Yeah, I know :-) ”