Two Cups of Coffee

Editor’s Choice: Love Short Story – Two Cups of Coffee

“Excuse me ?”, the words came from a stern yet pretty looking face sitting across me in a particularly boring lesson ,the professor desperately trying to teach the class about Newton’s third law of motion.

It took me a minute to think of the reason for the girl showing interest in a backbencher’s conversation, but soon I realized it was the idiotic male chauvinist joke that my friend had just concluded with a sense of unjustified pride.

“It’s because of guys like you that women still don’t have equal standards in our society.”

With these eventful words the bell rang and the professor was accompanied outside with a group of students including the girl who just made us realize what idiots we were.

That was the very first time when I acknowledged her presence around me and I am pretty much sure it was the same with her, not knowing that she, one day would become the reason for me writing this!

“Hey! Wait up”, I hurried to catch up. It had taken me a whole day to come up with an apology.

“Hi…hey…listen can I just talk to you for a moment?”

“I doubt that”, she answered back.

“Please I just want to apologize for yesterday. My friend was just being stupid.”, that was the best I could come up with a well managed guilty look in my eyes.

“It’s ok. The thing is I just hate our society being gender biased.” It wasn’t hard to figure out that she wasn’t the type of person who could stay angry for long .

“As a matter of fact I have similar thoughts, Dhruv by the way”, almost as a reflex my hand outstretched.

“Radhika”

 

So, 6 years ago, that was the briefest introduction one could possibly imagine. You might be wondering I never mentioned her appearance. I guess it was never important to me the way she looked , or  rather should I say she always seemed pretty to me-prettier than any girl I ever met. While we are on the topic, it was her eyes that made my heart skip beats over the coming years. Saying they were beautiful would be an understatement. With a shade of hazel green and a yellowish charm they best complimented a bright sunflower glittering in the face of sunlight.

Even with all this, no it wasn’t love at first sight, it just wasn’t …

It had been a year since we both took notice of each other over quite a pathetic joke, I must add. That day, we became acquaintances from unknown classmates and over the gone year I didn’t realize when we had become friends.

“Coffee?” I asked as we got out from the school premises

“Sure! “, she replied.

A mild drizzle and a cool breeze had made it a perfect moment for a hot cup of coffee with someone whom I now considered one of my closest friends. She just loved getting wet in rain, feeling those tiny droplets of water all over her face. Though I never enjoyed it as much as she did, watching her face glow with happiness in that rain was a feeling that just can’t be described in words.

There was a coffee shop near our school which had become a regular meeting place for the two of us. We never got to talk much while we were in school owing to the fact that she still had a strong dislike for most of my friends. We never talked about it; as a matter of fact we hardly ever talked about our other friends.

“So told your parents about animation?” she asked me in taking a sip from her cup.

“Na! Still a good six months to go. I’ll tell them”, I replied carefully taking my eyes off hers.

I was never interested in becoming an engineer or a banker. I just wanted to be a cartoonist. But I could never find it in me to tell this to my parents. This was the thing about me that irritated Radhika the most. Well, it was easy for her. She was all set to get into one of the top engineering colleges in India. However that was not an issue (at least not that time).

I took a pen and started sketching on a napkin just to avoid the conversation. She had a knack of not disturbing me whenever I was drawing something. She just sort of waited for me to finish with an eagerness in her eyes to have a look at what I had drawn. This time however she was not going to see something new. She saw that face every morning. Even I was surprised when I just started sketching her and at the same time trying to avoid eye contact. With each stroke there was something that was building up inside me- a feeling that I had never felt before. I was looking at her the way I had never looked before.

Her eyes had always been beautiful, but today there was something more to them, something that only my pen could see.  I never showed her what I had drawn that day. It was really difficult to as she was so keen on seeing it that she almost tore it while trying to snatch it from my hands. But how could I have? Would she have felt the same as I did while drawing it? I never got to know as the rain stopped and we moved out of the café. I walked her to the bus stop, bid her good bye and started walking back home trying my best not to think about what had just happened.

That night was a long sleepless one. There was a rush of feelings within me. But how could it be? She was my friend, one of my best friends…I couldn’t fall for her…I just couldn’t.

I tried avoiding her for the next few days but she would not let me do that. She wouldn’t give it a rest if I didn’t pick up her calls. I had no idea what was I going to do.

‘Should I tell her?’ that was the only thought that went on in my mind whenever I saw her.

I tried hard not to accidentally say something foolish to her. There was a couple of times when she caught me staring at her just looking into those bright eyes  without paying the slightest attention to what she was saying . Over the next couple of months I somehow managed not to make it clear to her that something was bothering me. But inside I was still fighting with myself. I was never so sure about anything, I had fallen in love but I didn’t know how she would have reacted or maybe I never wanted to know coz’ deep down somewhere I already knew her answer…

“I don’t know why you guys just think about one thing. I mean doesn’t friendship mean anything to you? Why is that you always have to make things complicated?” she just burst out seeing me as she entered the coffee house where I had been waiting for her for the past half an hour.

“Relax relax! Sit and tell me what happened?” I said almost forgetting that she made me wait half an hour.

“ Rahul just asked me out”, she replied. Her temper had cooled down.

“So? You don’t like him?”

“I never thought of him that way. I mean he is a nice friend and all but I never, I mean you understand right.” she said failing to get ant more words.

“Yes I can understand!” I sighed.

This particular conversation happened a few months before I had realized my feelings for her. Poor Rahul never got any good of it. They hardly talked after he asked her out. The very memory of this conversation kept me from confessing my feelings towards her. I didn’t want to end u our friendship. She meant a great deal to me. The dilemma continued…

“What happened? What are you thinking about?” Radhika inquired as I gazed at her while she was busy reading her book.

‘Nothing! Just that I love you!’ I so wished one day these words could get out of my mind so that she could at least listen to them.

“Nothing! I told my parents about my interest in animation. There was a huge row at home yesterday. But finally they settled.” I said desperately trying to keep my thoughts to myself.

She said something but something else was going inside me that prevented me from actually paying attention to what she was saying.

‘Tell her you idiot! What are you waiting for?’ a voice just rang inside my head.

‘Are you mad? Do you want her to slap you in front of all these people?’ another voice argued.

With my heart and head arguing I just kept smiling at her knowing that I was going to screw up my exams real bad…

 

It was our farewell. We were going to leave the school that had been the part of our lives. I was sitting in a back row while the teachers were still greeting the students. My eyes were fixated on the gate. They were waiting for someone, someone they hadn’t seen for a month, thanks to the preparations of stupid exams.

There she came, looking the most beautiful she had ever done. She went forward and sat down with a couple of her friends. None o the girls looked even half as pretty as she did that day. That was the day when I had finally decided I would ask her out. It was a sort of now or never kind of situation and I guess the thought of not being with her gave me the courage to ask her out.

The party went on for another 4 hours. I was the least interested in the proceedings. As soon as it ended I started looking for Radhika. I could see students getting all emotional, meeting their friends, teachers promising to stay in touch. There she was talking to Rahul .

I wanted to talk to her alone for obvious reasons, so I thought better to wait for a moment. I was looking at her just when I heard someone behind me.

“They look nice together don’t they? I am glad she finally said yes to him.”

It was Divya, Radhika’s best friend. I wouldn’t say we were great friends but yeah we over time we had started enjoying each other’s company.

“What do you mean ?”, I very well knew what she meant but maybe somewhere I had been hoping her to say that she was just joking.

“Well, don’t you know? I thought she would have told you. Rahul asked her out again last week and she said yes.” those words came as a thunderous shock to me. It seemed as If I was choking. I was struggling for breath. It took me a minute or two to get back to my senses. It took everything inside me to put up a fake smile and bid Divya goodbye.

I went out of the gate avoiding my friends in the best possible way and before I could notice, I had walked down to the café where I had spent the best times of my life, only this time I was alone.  There was only one cup of coffee, just one…

 

Two months had passed. I was now in Pune, away from home, no longer in school, away from Radhika!

I had talked to her a couple of times over the last two months. She told me about her and Rahul to which I could find no reply.  There no longer were those hour long phone calls, nor were there any more coffees…slowly we had grown apart.

“hey all the best for ur first day at college!”

My cell phone beeped and I was smiling even before reading the message coz’ it was from her. I felt as if nothing could go wrong now but it was not long since I came back to my senses and realized that it was just a message.

A lot of eventful incidents took place in the months that followed including ragging, new friends but this story isn’t about any of these. It’s about one and only one girl!

Messages every now and then somehow made sure that we stayed in touch. I was always trying hard to move on but it wasn’t easy to do so. Yet I made sure it didn’t affect my daily life.

I had come back home for diwali and it was Radhika’s birthday the day after.  I was not sure what I wanted to do but at I wanted to be with her. Diwali celebrations went as usual and the cheerful atmosphere around made sure that I didn’t feel low.

It was half past 12. I had tried calling her for a dozen of times now but her phone was busy. Of course it was. What was I thinking? She had a boyfriend; she wouldn’t be waiting for my call. Finally she picked up. I wished her trying my best to sound normal. We talked for quite a while about our colleges; it seemed as if nothing had changed. We talked as we used to, everything seemed just fine when I asked her if she would spend her birthday with me. I was going back to Pune that night. So I thought this was my last chance to spend some time with her.

“Sorry Dhruv, I already have plans with Rahul. I hope u can understand.  I am really sorry.”

I don’t know why I felt sad as somewhere I knew that this would be her reply.

“It’s ok…So you enjoy, have a nice time and stay blessed…Good night then.”

“Good night”, she replied.

That night was never good. It never could have been. I cursed myself for falling in love with her. I decided I would stop thinking about her. I decided I would stop loving her!

I never saw her on her birthday. I left for Pune that night hoping that it would be a new beginning.

The messages and the odd phone calls reduced and eventually became scarce.

A lot of time had gone by. I had completed my graduation and had returned to Delhi. It had been 6 months since I last talked to Radhika on my birthday. She had broken up with Rahul. The news at that time was just as normal to me as it could have been. Of course I had moved on. However my heart could never reason with my head as to why I still kept that sketch of her from the café if I had moved on. I still don’t know why. Maybe some questions are better left unanswered.

It was that day then, that Thursday which I will never forget as long as I live. I had gone to my old school for some paperwork and as I got out it started raining heavily. Somehow I just knew where I had to be.

3 long years and that place had not changed a bit. Last time I was there I was sad, lonely and depressed. There I was at the café again.

I sat down waiting for the rain to stop.

“Dhruv?”  The voice was one I could have recognized anytime anywhere. I turned to see; yes it was her, Radhika!

“Hey…what a surprise”, I replied with excitement.

“When did you come to Delhi?” she said starting a conversation.

We talked and talked and talked. If I could ask for something I would have asked for that rain to never stop. But I didn’t need to. The rain grew heavy with every passing moment.

It was as if time had flown back and we were there again, two friends unaware of the surroundings, no worries and yes two cups of coffee.  Her eyes still sparkled, they still made my heart skip beats, and they made me realize no I hadn’t moved on. If given a choice I could have lived my whole life there and then with her, looking at her.

The rain did stop that day but I decided, this time not half heartedly that I loved this girl.

I write this for her as words will fall short if try to tell her what she has meant to me over the past 6 years. I still don’t know whether she in her craziest of dreams has thought about me but I just know one thing that it takes a lifetime to find the person whom you truly love, I found mine over a silly joke and two cups of coffee…

__END__