He didn't know where he was going with this. But a bulb turned on in his mind, and he had felt compelled to lie to her. He felt it was his only chance to talk to her...know her without bias.
Things changed instantly for her, when she heard him say the exact words she had wanted to attempt a couple of hours ago; when she had met her husband-to-be in dim light and under the shade of an overgrown tree.
Her eyes that were stuck by surprise were now melting to softer hues.
"But why?" She asked concerned.
"It's ok...I don't want to bore you...it's a long story" he said, turning away coolly.
"No...try me...I don't mind as long as you take your sunglasses off" she said pointing to his glasses with her index finger; her face had an expression as that of a scared five year old, like she had just spotted something crawling on his face.
He took off his glasses and his bold eyes came into view, while the rest of his face was still hidden behind the borrowed winter cap.
"Ok...I'm not stripping anymore" he said to which she shook her head and smiled.
God, it killed him to sit there and chat away with her. He wanted so much more of this. For one minute he wanted that moment to be endless and the next he fought the thought that he had to get her back home.
"They are getting me married to this girl who doesn't like me. So to make things easy...I'm going away" Faking a sad look and a frown he turned to face her. She was over concerned now. He feared if he was taking it too far, but the adrenalin that was coursing through this body, convinced him otherwise. He was a sucker for such rushes.
On the other hand, she wished if her man could ever be so sincere. If only the buck toothed fellow can buck up against their marriage.
"Oh!...I'm so sorry to hear that...Do you like her?" She asked still looking worried.
"I don't know...May be"
She hardened her looks at his answer. "You can't be serious...you either like the person or you don't...there is no place for maybe's in love"
The last word jerked up Maan.
"Oi...when did I say love...to keep it simple, lets just say I have a crush on her"
"Don't you think you are too old to be having crushes?" she asked shamelessly, which surprised him, while the auto driver remained in a perpetual state of confusion at the ease in which they conversed.
"Well let's just say, I had a crush on her..." Stressing on the word had conveniently he added "She was too young...I used to follow her secretly whenever I was here and that's it. I never made an attempt to gather her intentions" He said reflecting a genuine sad streak in his tone.
"At that age, when you don't have a voice and you don't ever go in front of that person...how can you call that love?" He asked.
"I know exactly what you mean..." she said as he looked up to her.
"No seriously..." she wanted him to be truly convinced upon how she felt.
They didn't talk for the next 2 minutes, but she wanted to break the envelope of silence that was packing itself between them. He looked at her and found that she was distant, wrapped in a time and place that had definitely not been in the simple past.
"I think I was 15...Those were tough times...when you are preparing for your board...they only made just about everything else better...you know" He nodded in agreement along with a smile.
"I was done with Math...I couldn't get the theorems solved or figure out the integrals..." She spoke as a tinkle glazed her eyes, telling him it was coming from a happy place.
"And no doubt that day was my last straw...I threw the book away and ran home crying from under my favorite study tree. But how long do tantrums last at that age right? So I returned the next day..."
Now a fresh surge of enthusiasm coursed his body. Her narration was leaving him dowsed with nostalgia. Her animated gestures, made him want to arrest her small body into his arms.
"When I did come back, I had 9 pages of course material, neatly hand written and pinned to the tree. I thought it was luck that somebody had left it there and that it had just the same content I was struggling with..."
She continued after a brief pause. It was so weird for him to hear her repeat a time from their past, which she didn't even know he was a part of. He wanted to jump in and hail at her loudly like a kid that had won its first prize "Me'Me..That was I'" but then he thought it was best to be mum. This definitely was not the time and place, he knew.
"As days went by, I knew it was only meant for me...and those hand written pages never stopped coming for 33 days...I didn't have my voice then to find out who was doing so much for me without asking anything in return...I don't know if that's love either" She ended on a glum note sounding every bit regretful.
"You didn't try to find out at all? I mean my case was different...I was bordering on a stalker although I had plain adoration for her" He asked curiously, as if his life depended on it.
"I was scared...Luckily I was not sucked into the teenage drama like the others...but there was something so intense about the act that it scared me" She said.
"Oh!" he exclaimed.
"I mean...think about it...who would prepare a full length course material...given that he had his own load to deal with...I was sure he was from the same Geek gods group' you know the 3G's." She said moving her head all the while. He gave a relaxed laugh at her acronym.
"Yes...sounds like a psycho..." He agreed.
"Ok...enough of my sob story...Don't you think her family will be shamed for life if you leave her the night before marriage?" She asked wanting to get back what had started the anecdote from her irreversible past.
"Think about this...she will be happy right?" he counter argued. Her eyes met his momentarily, but she quickly looked away.
"She will be able to work with you...I'm sure...You seem nice" she said and a shy smile followed her last words.
"Why thank you. See she doesn't understand what you seemed to have grasped in like..." he looked at his Casio digital with a mini calculator placed under the display " 23 mts"
"Girls today they want the best in everything...Good looks, great salary and company benefits...To top it all you need be funny, smart, adventurous and drop dead gorgeous...Its like cloning 7 different people into one..." he said haughtily as if he had figured out a way to not sound sexist. Strangely she didn't argue back.
"No they don't...people adjust and compromise all the time" she said as Maan caught sight of some anger that was bubbled in her.
"Take me for example. I'm marrying a dork. A sight I rather not describe...but I'm still marrying him. I know I can work with it...I mean drain the oil from his hair, lose the tardy clothes, perhaps a couple of trips to Lifestyle and Westside...Oh! Most important the glasses...I mean they just have to go...and then I'm sure everything else is a life long process"
She said making it all sound oversimplified; a reluctant smile following the small vigor that bubbled in her. Geez, women loved makeovers, he thought. No wonder they spent half their time dressing and undressing their dollies most of their childhood. The training all came handy in good time.
But given all that, it still did not sit well with him why she was out of the house at this time. If she was ready to work with the nerd that showed up, then where was she running away?
To be continued...
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