Romantic Short Story – Match Made in Heaven!!
Photo credit: Scarab from morguefile.com
“Come on, he doesn’t seem too bad. Accept the request, we’ll see how it goes.” Saira said in her usual persuasive tone.
“Yeah right, and you can tell all that just by looking at his one photo and a self description which he probably took someone’s help to write! Besides he’s too outdoorsy for me” I tried to get back to work.
I was the only ‘single’ in my office, and every one around me was trying get me hooked up. Since all guys were either married or engaged in my office I was safe from intra-office match making. But they never were tired of finding some other way.
They forced me register in matrimony sites, literally forced me. In fact Saira filled up the registration details herself, and to top it all, she named herself as my sister and gave her number as contact!
Now in every break she used to look for good matches, and of course the rest of the gang hovered around her seat to see. Anyone getting majority’s approval was sent a request. We even had a little photo session to take a few photos for my matrimony profile.
After a few months even I started enjoying it. It was fun to look at all the profiles and to read the descriptions given. Although all this made me feel a little bad about being single and I still wasn’t sure if matrimony was after all a good idea to find ‘Mr. Right’.
Saira used to get calls and she herself being the judge, or the elder sister (as per the profile) refused some (most) offers that came my way. Her reasons being, some prospective mother-in-laws sounded too rude, some guys sounded too cheesy etc etc.
There was a request from this guy who was in my city and into some kind of automobile business. The girls were quiet impressed with his profile photo and the description of course. After about a week of receiving his request, I accepted. Well actually Saira did. Since I was on a free subscription I couldn’t get his contact details or chat with him, so my ever-so-caring colleagues went out of there way to find him on face book. With more than 100 Santoshs’ registered on FB, they finally found the right one. And then the chats began. We used to have frequent chats and obviously Saira used to look into all of them. They even tried to train me in how to talk/respond to guys. ‘be friendly but not overly friendly’ ; ‘always state your opinion strongly, he should know you have your own voice’ ; ‘get know everything about him but don’t reveal too much about you’ etc etc. Frankly, I never got any sense out of these!
Anyways, after a few days we decided to meet. He offered to come by my office and then we could go for a cup of coffee nearby. A day prior to our meeting the girls decided that I should wear my pink salwar and wear light makeup. On the day, they even did my hair! I found it very silly but just went on with it. We were supposed to meet after my office hours. So around 6 PM all the girls came down with me to our entrance gate. I suddenly felt like being in a movie or something. It was very weird for me, yet I had butterflies in my stomach. More than the excitement of meeting a complete stranger for match making, it was the enthusiasm of the girls that made me nervous. I got a call sharp at 6, it was him, he said he was right in front of office and can see a bunch of girls but cant see me. That’s when the girls found where he was and moment they saw his car, half of them let out a ‘ohh!!’. Well because they thought he would be driving a super cool car since he is the automobile business and all. I couldn’t help but laugh at their reaction. Anyways they went their ways and I went towards him.
Seeing me approach him, he stepped out of the car. And my oh my! Was he tall or what? I suddenly felt like a tiny girl in front of him. He literally had to bow down to shake hands with me! Anyways, sitting in car I couldn’t help but see how I ‘not’ liked him. His huge Idee sunglasses, stink of cigarette smoke in the car, and his incessant self adoring talks made me wonder if he was the guy I spoke to over the phone or had been chatting with. Anyways, for courtesy sakes I had a coffee and then took his leave.
I somehow felt exhausted after that. I switched my phone off and had a nice long sleep. I felt very light next morning. The girls jumped on me as soon as I entered the office to know how the date went and when I told them how I barely survived, they were so depressed. Saira did message him that it wouldn’t work between us. Well this disastrous date did give me chance to show them how stupid the whole idea was. And they did tone down a bit after that (thankfully).
Although the profile searches and occasional chats with such guys went on, I never took anything seriously anymore. I just went about my life as usual.
After a couple of months, something happened. I was getting some groceries, listening to music on my ipod, just going through every shelf. I was checking out some pasta sauces when my ipod just slipped out of my bag. I had to put down all the bottles to get it. In the mean while the guy standing adjacent to me had picked it up and as I turned around to get it, it was like the time froze over. I grabbed my ipod thanking and apologizing at the same time, when I looked at his face, our eyes met and for several moments we just stood there, looking at each other. Why? I just don’t know, even today! He wasn’t some over the top handsome guy whose looks would hold your attention. But his eyes had this strange twinkle, his smile was the most warm and comforting smile ever. When another shopper said ‘excuse me’ as she wanted to check the sauce too, is when we broke the gaze. Too caught up in the moment all I said was thank you and just moved ahead with my things. I could feel his eyes on me when I moved away. I quickly went to billing counter, as much as I wanted to know about him, I wanted to get out of the store too as this incident made me feel very strange. On my way home I kept thinking about the guy, and wondered if he was looking at me trying to figure out why the hell was I looking at him like that! Suddenly I felt very stupid, as usually am quiet at ease in such situations. I never looked back. That night sleep eluded me for a while. I tried to brush away his face from my mind and kept telling myself to get over such teenager like feel.
Morning was different though, I was out of ‘his’ effect and went about my work as usual. Thankfully it was a very busy day at work, hardly gave me any time to think about anything. After a long day, me and Saira decided to grab a cup of coffee before heading home. We went to the cafe opposite to my office. As we walked up the stairs talking about work, there was a group of people, guys and girls, around seven of them walking out. We just stepped aside to give them way after giving a fleeting look. And there he was, talking so animatedly to his colleague. Just as I stepped in the cafe he saw me, suddenly stopped talking and just stood there with the same big smile on his face. I felt a warm feeling in my body, and never realized I was smiling back at him. Just then his colleague pulled him in the car and they left. Saira witnessed all this and the fact that the smile never vanished from my face even after he left gave her enough fuel to tease me. Next 30mins or so were spent talking about the incident at the store and she kept drawing possibilities of him working or living nearby. Well the possibility of seeing him again didn’t seem so bad at that time.
Days went by, we got busier in work. I never saw him again. It was almost three months to the incident.
It was our annual retreat, this time we planned for an adventurous tour to Munnar, a hill station near by. A three day trip with colleagues. Me and some of my colleagues decided to take a few days off and stay there for few more days. There we went hiking and camping. On the second day, we had a campfire. All were in a merry mood, they were dancing and singing around the fire. There were two other groups who were camping there, they also joined us in campfire. We suddenly became a huge crowd. It may be the effect of the weather or the fun we were having, we all just had a ball together. After a while almost everyone retired to their tents, but some of us stayed under the starry sky. Saira shook me and said, “Lets go for a stroll, its lovely weather”. “Fine, but not too far from the camp” I said and then at 1am in the night, both of us started to walk. There were a few others who were still up and talking in groups. Once in a while someone would throw some light at us to see who was there. After a few minutes we sat near the lake. There was a group which was throwing torch light at us every now and then. We thought it must be some of our colleagues. After a while a guy walked towards us with a torch in his hand. We couldn’t see him as the torch light shone in our eyes. Saira got up and asked whats going on when he reached close. That’s when I saw, it was him!
After all these months, out of nowhere here he was, in the most unexpected place. Before I could get up or say anything Saira recalled his face and let out “Hey, its him!” which made him smile sheepishly, while I was still trying to absorb the fact that he was standing in front of me.
He said “I just wanted to know your name before you vanish again” and offering his hand to Saira first he said “Hi, I am Sandeep.” Saira readily shook hand with him saying “Hi, am Saira and that is Neha”. Then turning towards me she said “I’ll just get some water from the camp” and left towards the camp. All the while I was just smiling at him and, so was he.
He sat down by my side and asked playfully “Do you talk or you just make people forget themselves with your smile?”. I couldn’t help but let out a subtle laugh at his attempt on flattery. And then we got on talking. Apparently, he lived in my same locality and even his office was very close to mine. He told me that he has been traveling abroad for work last couple of months. (That explained why I never saw him again.)
We spoke for around two hours before we realized that Saira never came back with water. I thanked her in my mind.
It was as if we knew each other for ages. We immediately bonded over just everything. He loved music so did I. He loved long walks in nights so did I. He loved movies, rains, chit chat, beaches, books, long drives, good food, relaxed Sundays. So did I!!
We were chatting and laughing. That’s when we noticed the birds chirp. It was almost dawn! we stayed up all the night chatting. When it started getting brighter, I stood up to go back to my camp before any one notices, to save my self from their tease. That’s when held my hand and asked me. “When am I seeing you again? Please don’t say three months from now” I felt a urge to just hug him and stay there with him. Brushing it aside I managed to tell him my hotel’s name and that I’ll be staying there for two more days.
“Ohh, but my group is leaving after breakfast today”, he said. Suddenly I felt sad, and I guess it showed on my face. He just gave me a warm smile with an expression as if he wanted me to stay with him said “Do you really have to go right now?”.
I just smiled and eased my hand out of his and walked towards my camp. When I turned to look back he was still there looking at me not just so intensely, with those deep dark eyes. I almost went back to him but then I heard some movement in the camp and just rushed inside my tent.
Saira kept teasing me all the while trying to get details of the night. But when I told her with a sad face that they were leaving after breakfast, that’s when she understood my feelings and consoled me by saying “We’ll meet him when we get back” and to lighten the mood said it again while stressing on ‘we’, “ WE will meet him. Not you alone this time missy”. I loved the fact that, she always made me feel better when am down for any reason. By the time , our group packed stuff and got ready to go back to the hotel, Sandeep’s group was already gone.
Saira said, “Why don’t you call him and check when exactly are they leaving?”
“SH*T!!” that’s when I remembered all the while we never exchanged our contacts. I felt really stupid.
“Leave it now, we’ll see. Lets go, am too damn hungry” said Saira dragging me with her.
We had a good breakfast and then I excused myself for a nap while others went out sightseeing. Around afternoon, I got up and ordered some lunch and just stayed in bed watching Serendipity for almost 100th time. After my lunch I was about to get back to sleep when Saira called and threatened to tell the entire group about last night if I didn’t join them right away. Unwillingly I got dressed after a shower and went down. They were going out again after lunch. We spent a good amount of day just roaming in the market buying some spices and chocolates and clicking meaningless pictures all the while. When we reached back to the hotel, we were informed that there was a garden dinner with live music. As half of my group was leaving next morning they went to get some sleep right after dinner, and rest of us stayed their talking and enjoying the band. I was getting tired of the chitter chatter.
I excused myself and went to the pool area. It being winter there wasn’t anyone at the pool. I just sat back on one of the chairs looking at the starry sky thinking about last night. A tap on my shoulder broke my string of thoughts. It was him. I almost dint react, until he said “Hi. Saira told me you were here. I hope you don’t mind me sitting with you” and he gave me his usual wide warm smile.
“But, you left. What are you doing here?” I said getting up and facing him.
“Well, my friends left, I stayed back. Couldn’t risk not seeing you again for three months” his face had a genuine expression. I couldn’t say anything. I couldn’t smile. I just looked at him. He came close and held my hand and asked again “you don’t mind me sitting with you. Do you?”
In the spur of the moment, I just hugged him. The feeling of joy of seeing him again took away all the inhibitions. I just held him, don’t know for how long. He kept stroking my hairs. Holding me. In his arms I felt at peace. There wasn’t any place I wanted to be but this. When I gained my senses, I withdrew and apologized for it.
He said “I just asked for your permission to sit but you granted my wish from last night without me even asking for it!!”. I just looked at him, he drew me close and said “I am not too sure whether you would approve of this”
“Of what?” I asked puzzled.
And he held my face and gave me the most passionate kiss possible. I felt as if I was in a trance. He hugged me after the kiss and whispered in my ears “please don’t disappear again”. I hugged him tighter and said “never”.
We spent another night chatting, chatting about just every thing under the Sun. We grew closer every minute. We exchanged numbers, after laughing at how we forgot to do so last night itself. I felt a new energy in me. We were together the rest of two days. He gelled well with my friends and we all enjoyed our time.
Its almost one year to our actual meeting at the lake side. And here I am waiting for him to pick me up from work, to go shopping. Shopping for wedding card. Our wedding card. If this is a dream, I never want to wake up.
__END__
