Misinterpretation

I am currently waiting for the cab in front of my apartment which I booked a few minutes back!

When it's here, I quickly seated inside adjusting my handbag! It will be a thirty minutes drive to my company where I am working as a Software Developer.

To fight the boredom, I opened my phone and my eyes fell on the message that invading the notification bar.

It's from my best friend Anya.

"Hello, Shreya! Any information about your lost dream hero?"

And then, my thoughts drifted back to him. I don't even know his name, not even his details, his profession, his address, nothing! One thing I am aware of him is that he is living somewhere near to my locality.

I used to secretly admire and stare at him every morning when he drives on his bike in his formal attire, exactly when I wait for a cab, I mean exactly when I am ready to leave my house! It continued for three months and then tragedy hit me one month back from when he turned vanished!

I still used to hope to witness him every day, but it remained as misery and now I lost my desire too! It's not some love or anything, but it's a feeling which was enough to make my tears drop on his disappearance! Hope I find him one day.

With these thoughts, I reached my company, done my work and returned to my flat.
This routine schedule went for three more days and I am here again waiting for a cab!

Then, the magic happened as I saw him finally, driving on his bike, crossing me and this time, he spared a glance at me which made my heart skip a bit!

Wow! Thank you, God, for making this miracle happen!

And that was then, I noticed a little girl seated behind him, tightly hugging his body with her tiny arms.

Who is the little girl? Maybe five-year-old! But I never saw her before with him!

I was both confused and elated but somehow managed to continue with my routine.

And it's been a week since I have been watching him every day with the little girl and him, throwing few glances at me!

This time, they stopped at a bakery which is at the end of our street, I cancelled the cab purposefully and walked over to them.

He bought her an ice-cream for which she squealed and said..

"Thank you, daddy! This is so tasty!"

And it felt like my world stopped after realising the truth and I quickly barged into my apartment and marched into my house.

I wept for the whole day, blamed myself for keeping my hopes in him and I don't know why! It may not be love but I felt something for him and it hurts me a lot, especially knowing that he is married and also a father.

He seemed too young to get married and to be a father but we can't change fate!
By convincing myself and tried to forget him, I decided to leave early to office, unlike my usual time just to avoid him.

It's been one week since I started avoiding his presence. Though the pain is still the same, I somehow adjusted to combat it and buried my feelings inside my heart.

As usually, I waited for a cab and when it arrived and stopped before me, I quickly seated in and sensed someone's presence beside me from the corner of my eye but ignored it and indulged into my phone!

And after few minutes, A masculine voice startled me.

"You must be late today!" He said

I immediately looked at the direction of voice and got shocked! It was him, whom I admired from a far!

"Excuse me!" I said and cleared the throat being nervous all of a sudden.

"Yeah! I mean you were leaving early these days, at 7 AM, but today, it's already 7:20, so you must be late today!" He said shrugging his shoulders.

"Yeah!" I said and gave a tight-lipped smile.

So, that means he has been observing me for many days! Unbelievable!

A sudden urge to ask him something spread over me but suppressed myself and after few minutes, I gave up on my mind and spurted out.

"Where is the little girl?" I asked, staring at him.

"Uhh..She is ill today so resting at home!" He said and gave a genuine smile to me.

"Oh! You need to accompany her to hospital rather than leaving to job! After all she is your daughter, right!" I sounded casual, swallowing the pain.

"What? Who told you she is my daughter?" He jerked in confusion.

That means, she is not his daughter?

"Uhh..that, actually, I listened to her, calling you daddy!" I said awkwardly for which he laughed softly.

Aww..he has a charming smile!

"She is my brother's daughter, so practically I am her dad too, right? She calls my brother papa and me daddy! They moved in with me ten days back after our long vacation." He snickered and shook his head.

"Oh! I am sorry for the misinterpretation!" I grinned wide in full of happiness and peace spreading over my heart.

"It's okay! By the way, what's your name?" He asked turning to me.

"Shreya Tripathi!" I said and heard his 'oh'.

"And yours?" I asked him raising my eyebrows.

"Aman Malhotra!" He smiled at me and that's how our journeys overlapped and our lives started to sail together. Thanks to heavens that he showed up and cleared my misinterpretation.

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Hello my readers, this one shot was written a long time ago, like one year ago and I published it on one platform but never thought to publish it here as I thought this as a silly one as this came up from my random thoughts.

But I changed my mind and decided to show it you guys as after all it is my story.

So, what I wanted to say through this is we can lose people and much more due to our small mistakes by misinterpreting things.

Before you do that, confirm your thoughts and step forward.

That's all, thanks for giving a try to this one shot and I love you all.

Do VOTE and please COMMENT your thoughts on this. Share this to your friends if you liked this and check out my profile for more stories.

See you then,

Love & Gratitude❤️
-JSNJ

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Date: 24/7/21