Perfectly Imperfect

Part 2 : Finally, it's Sunday!

After a long tedious wait, the day has come. When you wait for something exciting to happen in your life, the time goes slow as a sloth, just to see you suffer. It's like someone is holding the earth from rotating. We see it happen on our birthdays, our graduation day, first holiday trip, friend's or our wedding day, favorite festival, favorite shows, anniversaries, and like me, the first date. We count minutes, hours, and days to see how far we are from that due date. In my case, I used to check if my clock stopped working because when I saw the time after a little while, it just moved a bit forward. In the whole week, minutes felt like hours, hours felt like days. All I could do was wait. On the other hand, time goes so fast that hours seem like minutes when you are with your favorite person or doing your favorite thing. A minute can either feel like a second or like twenty-four hours; it all depends on what we are waiting for.
Time is such a strange thing, isn't it?

I was never so excited to go to church because I will be meeting her after this long wait. I got up early, put some songs on my PC and started getting ready. My mom was shocked to see me so active on a Sunday, that too for going to church. I got ready early and asked my family to get ready soon. They started getting curious about my behavior; so I told them that I have an interview tomorrow and I need to prepare for it if we can get the church program done soon. We started early from home. I drove as fast as I could.

As soon as I reached church, I sat in the same spot as last time, with my family. I looked around for her; she didn't come yet. So, I started listening to the choir and sang along. In about fifteen minutes, I could smell the same perfume. I looked over my shoulder and saw her right behind me. Her smile lifted her cheeks just like how it lifted my soul.
"How could she get more beautiful than before? Melissa. Melissa Janine", I exhaled as her smile gave me relief from the anxiety that I had in the prior week.

After thirty minutes, when the whole church was silent, she whispered "Steven!".

I got alarmed: "How does she know my name?!"
I turned back and looked at her. She said by gestures "I will leave the church now. You come to the parking area after 10 minutes. Okay?".

I nodded "okay".

After ten minutes, I came out of the church casually and went to the parking area. I looked around but she wasn't there. "Why doesn't she appear when I look around for her everytime?". Just when I was getting out from there, a car raced and stopped beside me.
She rolled down the windows and said "Get in!".
I was surprised and curious to know what kind of a person she is. No woman has ever put me on toes like this.
I asked "Where are we going?".
She said "Relax! I didn't kidnap you. You are safe with me".
"Oh wow. I feel so relieved" I said sarcastically.
She laughed and said "I have not decided the place yet. Let's look around".
I asked "what is happening?"
She said: "It's our first hang out. Don't wanna make it boring, do we?!".
I was astonished and said "Wow! If you could inform me before, I could get my wallet from dad and come. I would make a reservation at a restaurant or something if you told me last time".
She looked through the window and asked, "Why reservations to eat Panipuri and samosa chaat?" and winked at me.
I replied "You never give a straight answer, do you?".
She laughed and parked the car beside a Panipuri stall.
We got down the car and ordered Panipuri and two samosa chaat. While waiting for it, we started giving a proper introduction of ourselves this time. She works as a journalist and her hobbies are to do anything out of the box; yeah, that was pretty obvious. I introduced myself that I am a software engineer but I'm more inclined to working on stories. She said that she already knows.
So I asked "How do you know about me?".
"You've got quite some funny friends in the church. They are sweet" she said, lighting up a cigarette.
"My friends?....who could ......? Ahhhh! Noel?! He told you about me? Well, he doesn't know much about me though" I said, looking at her blow the smoke out of her light brown lips.
"Maybe not as much as I know about your secret hangout spot; the lake in the city outskirts. You prefer going there alone, don't you? It is really peaceful, actually", she said casually, looking at a kid who was standing nearby.
"Wait! What?! How do you know about....? Who are you?!" I exclaimed.
"Hahahaha! Don't freak out. I go there too, when I need some peace of mind from this city life" she said while making funny faces to make the kid laugh.
"Ohh okay" I replied, while passing the food to her.
She gave a pause and said "Or maybe I was following you", she winked again.
"You are so unpredictable Melissa. I've never met a person like you who muddles up my thoughts on every sentence like this".
"Yeah I know; that's what my ex said before breaking up" she laughed.
"What? That's unbelievable. Anyway, it's his loss. Who would leave such a beautiful woman?", I gave a gentle smile.
"Hello mister! Don't fall for this face. You'll regret meeting me after you get to know more about me. Don't say I didn't warn ya" she said, with tears in her eyes while eating the spicy samosa chaat.
I took out my handkerchief and gave it to her. She smiled and wiped her tears.
"Oh sorry! The mascara..." she said sniffing with her cherry red nose.
"Haha it's okay. My handkerchiefs are more used by women than me. So, I'm kinda used to it anyway" I said.
She squinted her eyes and smirked at me.
"I mean, my mom and sister don't get theirs. So, they use mine or my dad's" I added.
We laughed and finished our food in a few minutes. We got back into the car and spoke all random things about life, jobs, friends and family, while riding back to the church. We exchanged our numbers while we were discussing our past relationships.
Looks like we reached church on the right time. I got down the car and looked at the people dispersing and walking to parking area. I saw my parents searching for me outside the church. I instantly planned on sneaking from their back amidst the crowd. I would tell that I went to meet a friend and after coming back, I took a seat in the last row.
Before I rushed to them, I turned back and said "I really had a good time Melissa. Thank you".
"Me too, Steven", she smiled.

That smile! I could fall a hundred times for that smile. So calm and peaceful she looks when she smiles. It was stuck in my head on my way back home. I realised that I spent three hours with her and it felt like three minutes for me. The whole week, it went like a tortoise and these few hours, it turned into a rabbit. Time is truly a strange thing.

This time, My parents were a bit worried because I was too silent than usual. I reached home and texted her on Whatsapp "Hey, just reached home". She wasn't online. I fell on my bed backwards and just stared at the ceiling recollecting her smile, laugh, eyes, gestures, everything. I thought "She's so perfect" and slowly, I drifted into a dreamy slumber.