Scrolling through the memories that his phone had captured of the “good times” he had spent with her, he enjoyed the solitude of sitting in the corner of an almost deserted restaurant. The music playing in the background became a poignant reminder of the time when they had danced in the rain. Nostalgic, he wiped the drop of reminiscence that formed in his eye.
“Akshar?” he heard the sweetest voice call him.
“Don’t keep a guy waiting on a date! Especially on a lunch date! Some men prioritize food before women, get that straight in your head Ms. Raksha Rao!”
“Okay, you don’t have to be so grumpy about it. Even you were late on our last date, I didn’t make a big deal out of it” she said as she settled down on the chair in front of him.
A disconsolate waiter stepped in to take the order and without his own cognizance, he saved the restaurant from a nuclear war. Akshar was never fond of hypocrites, and an accusation of him being one was completely obnoxious. Moreover he didn’t like her tone.
“So you were telling me about your girlfriend on our last date. Aren’t you guys exclusive? Doesn’t she mind you going on lunch dates with other girls?” she asked making him the subject of their talk. Not-everything-is-about-me, is what Ms. Centre-of-the-universe had recently rationalized.
“She does not have any rights. I stopped talking to her because I was angry at her, and she did not make any attempts to talk to me. So I assumed she doesn’t care. She gave up the rights”. He said calmly, wondering if his table etiquettes were right.
“Wow! You assumed?” she said with subtleness in her sarcasm.
“When I finally talked to her, she said she was giving time, some time. She said everything will be fine if we let things be for a few days. What does that even mean?” he said in denial, defending himself.
“So that’s your problem with her? That she didn’t apologize to you when you were sulking? Do you even remember what the fight was about?” She continued with her artful insults intimidating him on many levels.
“I do remember, she ordered a palazzo online without telling me. I was enraged. Then order got cancelled because she had messed up the delivery address. I cracked a joke about how dumb she was. But I meant it in a cute way. She was all touchy and said that I underestimated her. She can’t take a joke! She already thought that I was judgmental and mean. So I decided to prove her right by not apologizing or talking to her. And I’ve told you what happened next”.
“Oh! Sorry princess. Sorry that your prince charming was not perfect. Did you even talk to her about it? Maybe she wanted to surprise you with a palazzo. And moreover, how can you stick to something so stupid?” she said with a disgusted look on her face.
“It may seem stupid to you, but online shopping together was our thing. And you don’t get it do you? She does not understand me at all. She does not know when I am complimenting her”.
“Okay, whatever, but why are you arguing with me? Doesn’t that beat the point of this date with me?” she asked.
“Yeah, right. I am sorry. So tell me about yourself, what happened to your boyfriend?”
“Well, he ditched me. At least that’s what I had thought. I was happy with him, but in my excitement and in the quest to find my eternal bliss with him, I paid less attention to his life. Then something happened and everything changed. I mean he had already started seeing others. I learnt a really important lesson then.”
“Isn’t that exactly what you are doing? Seeing others?” he said, debuting with a point on sarcasm stage against his resilient and impregnable opponent. “What do you mean by paying less attention to his life?” he continued his parade of newfound victory in insulting as she silently stared at her food.
“He understood me really well. One day, I texted him at 6’ o clock in the morning and he asked if I was going to temple. Because he knew I don’t wake up that early unless I have to go somewhere. That’s how much he knew me. While he analyzed my timetable only with the timing of my texts, I did not realize that he was taking swim lessons for two months” she said, with a penitent face that refused to meet his taunting eyes.
“Don’t look at me like that! I’ve learnt my lesson!” she said and silently forced the food down her ready-to-choke-out-of-emotions throat. Long and awkward silence succeeded their argument which seemed like a deadlock.
“Couldn’t you pick an enjoyable movie? I listen to enough bhajans at home, I don’t need to hear them in theatres too” she said making herself comfortable in her seat.
Akshar always picked such movies. Not because he was interested in watching them, but because he was not! Lack of interest in the movie would ignite conversations, especially on dates where he was anxious and spooked by the beauty of the girl sitting beside him. His girlfriend never missed an opportunity to mute him with her elegant dresses, long earrings, austere make up with just enough mascara to add mystique to her eyes and a teeny tiny bindi that drove him mad. Which is why picking such movies was always important for him.
Five minutes after watching the movie on the edge of her seat, she leaned back disappointed in the commercialization of devotion and over glorification of mundane sentiments.
“Did you know that my name is an anagram for yours?” he said, utilizing his window of opportunity.
“A-K-S-H-A-R, R-A-K-S-H-A…” she spelled both their names. “Oh yeah! I never realized! You give so much attention to detail! If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you are flirting with me!” she giggled and winked at him.
“I already have a girlfriend! Why would I be flirting with you?” he exclaimed.
“Then why are you out here with me Mr. Monogamy?” she winked at him again. He did not respond. Looking at his stiff face, she changed the topic and asked “so you were telling that your girlfriend never understood you?”
“Yeah, I always had to act mature around her. I had to be the gentleman so that she would be happy. Sometimes it makes me wonder if she ever cared about who I really was. I maybe all tough outside, but inside I am really childish and emotional”. He said in a voice loud enough to undermine the noise in the theatre, but not too loud enough for anyone else to hear.
“Maybe she likes to be childish too, have you ever tried being yourself with her?”
“I have… we had a bet once. It was a stupid bet about touching my nose with my tongue. I won and she had to do what I said for an hour. We were in a park at a beach. It was drizzling and there was no one around. I asked her to dance for me first, then with me. We danced with my hands in hers and her leading it. The noisy wind played for us while the sea was keeping us in rhythm with the waves. The sand sticking to our feet which would occasionally and mostly purposefully step on each other was either being washed away with the salt water or the drops of rain that dripped through our bodies. I turned around and lifted her to give her a short piggyback ride. Weary, we sat in the benches nearby, clouds cleared just enough for the sun to show his rays that were going to be lost in the abyss soon. I introduced her to Mr. snuggle-monster in my hands and held her really close. I asked her to nosebox with me.”
“Eww!” she cut him before he started his next sentence. “You are so romantic and stuff! ‘#unsubscribe’! I asked if you tried being childish with her, I did not ask you to recite your love poem!” she teased him.
“Isn’t having a bet to touch your nose with your tongue childish? Making her dance in rain and ruining her perfect hair? Stepping on each other’s toes while dancing? Piggyback rides? And Snuggle-monster?! Noseboxing? I consider all that childish.”
“What is nose boxing? I guess she didn’t try it and our princess never had a day like that again?”
“Nose boxing is where you press your nose against each other, and try to steal kisses, you know, just like boxing… There you defend with hands and punch opponents face for points, here you block with nose and kiss opponents lips. I knew it’s girlish, but it never happened, so don’t judge me! I was just enjoying the moment. And don’t you dare call me princess again!” he gave her a final warning.
“She said she liked it that day, but we never had a day like that again. Whenever I tried to be childish she warned me to be aware of my surroundings and told me to act like an adult. She is so much like a guy. Insensitive yet adorable, arrogant yet caring, unromantic but charming… if I ever wrote my autobiography, it will be named ‘I kissed a tomboy!’” he said and laughed.
“Mine would be ‘I kissed a bookworm’.” She said and joined him in laughing.
“Am I a bookworm?” he asked, with a bit of seriousness in his playful voice.
“According to you, your girlfriend who jilted you at the altar didn’t know you at all, then how can I tell if you are a bookworm or not?
“Okay, I get it, what about your boyfriend? Was he a bookworm?”
“Actually he was really smart. He never needed books…” and she went on praising him till the interval. He went out to get some popcorn in the interval. While standing in the line, his phone buzzed. It was his girlfriend, asking him about the girl he was roaming around with, and also asking him if he could meet her. He returned to his seats with popcorn to see Raksha get ready to leave. She said that she had to leave to meet her office friend. He asked her whether she would mind if he asked his girlfriend to come and watch the rest of the movie with him. She said it was perfectly all right.
He took out his phone and texted her about the movie. She looked at the screen and asked, “So you prefer iMessage?”
“No! I text her in iMessage. Normally I use Whatsapp”.
“What a coincidence! Even my boyfriend used to text me in iMessage and use Whatsapp for everything else!” she winked at him with a smile on her face as she left.
Seconds after Raksha left, his girlfriend entered the theatre, found Akshar and occupied the seats beside him.
“Aren’t you even a little ashamed? You were just here with a girl, and now when she leaves halfway, you ask me to come and sit through the movie?” she asked him sarcastically.
“Well, aren’t you ashamed? Of stalking me and stealing a seat from some other girl who paid for tickets for you to sit with your boyfriend?” he asked. They glared at each other silently for a few seconds and then burst into laughter. He looked into her eyes in the dim lit theatre. It is said that eyes look mesmerizingly beautiful when there isn’t sufficient light. Akshar had just found solid proof to that theory. The conversation between them was sporadic with their hands doing most of the talking with each other.
It had been a few days since Akshar had been on any dates. He had been spending most of his time with his girlfriend. That day, they were sitting in the park, slowly watching the sun set over the horizon on a calm and breezy evening. Akshar was mostly relishing the moment when a phone call from office disturbed him. He stepped aside to take the call. As soon as he cut the call, his girlfriend jumped over him. She climbed his back and demanded for a piggyback ride. After that she taught him about Eskimo kiss which she said should be made compulsory for all nose boxing players. They nose boxed and she won. As a reward she demanded to let the snuggle monster eat him up. He smiled, thinking about the meticulousness and perfection of the situation and asked her to excuse him for a minute.
He opened Whatsapp and texted Raksha that it was really nice meeting her, but he was happy with his girlfriend now and that he hopes to never meet her again.
His girlfriend’s phone buzzed. She opened Whatsapp and replied that she too was happy with her boyfriend, and thanked him for helping in understanding her boyfriend better.
Akshar had a new Whatsapp message, but he did not open it since he had seen while Raksha typed it. He kept his phone aside and said, “So who wants to cuddle?” and winked at her.