THE BRIDGE

The Pastry shop

After movie I asked Priya if she could help me explore the city since I shifted here recently for work. She agreed to it, I locked the door behind us as she sat on her scooty adjusting her helmet, she passed me my helmet as I sat behind her, I could see myself blushing in the mirror, she started talking about the old temples, forts and office places in the city and how fond she was of Bangalore since she grew up here. We went to a pastry shop and bought two pastries and sat there for a while as she was scrolling something on her phone while I was looking outside, suddenly it started raining heavily, people running with plastic bags on their heads, some had umbrellas, some waiting near the shops waiting for the rain to stop, the view outside was beautiful but the person who sat infront of me was somewhat more beautiful. She kept her phone down and started gazing at the rainy streets and spoke up telling me about her school life, she used to dance in the rain with her bestfriend everytime they missed the bus or when they forgot their umbrella, everytime it rained she felt like something good is about to happen. While she was saying all of this I was looking in her eyes, this time her eyes met mine, it was intense like I could read her completely as if she could read me too, like she's gonna tell me something related to it. I was waiting for her to make the first move and it actually happened, she broke the eye contact for a while, held my hand and said "Pata hai humari life mein koi ek hi humare dil ke sabse kareeb aa paata hai, they say there are 7.9 billion people in this world but we meet only some of them for a reason, that connection can't be felt with anyone else". She started rubbing my hands slowly while saying that, I interrupted "I know right, we can't bond with all of them but we can form a connection with some of them". Finally I gathered courage while she was looking at me and asked her "Do you feel the same way about me the way I feel about you?". The colour from her rose-tinted cheek faded, it turned pale, she widened her eyes and her lips parted in vague. She dropped my hand and continued "Feel? Umm is this a joke? I don't find it funny!" Everything started replaying in my head I was thinking if I overanalyzed her being nice to me or maybe she's nice to everyone, I went silent. She interrupted, " Hey what are you talking about Sid, aren't we just friends?", before I could say something she continued "I'm really sorry Sid if you felt that way but I was just being friendly I don't have feelings for you, I already like another guy". The last statement buried a hole in my heart, I was wondering that earlier she said that she is unable to find the one. I was shattered, I couldn't speak a word, she left, I felt numb, I felt like I had lost everything I loved, I felt like a loser, I felt like a naive person who considered her being kind as love. But I was still confused "What about the hints she gave me?? Asking me about marriage, agreeing to spend a whole day with me, talking about her family, those flirty gestures, holding of hands, the intense eye contact". I felt like an idiot, I moved out of the pastry shop took a rickshaw and went home. Priya wasn't there like I'd expected although I wasn't kinda expecting her to be here after everything that happened, things are gonna turn pretty awkward between us after this and I was ready to face it. I closed the door and went into the shower, I cried in the shower for hours and then I decided to take a day off from work. I picked up my phone and started dialing the office number, to my surprise a female known voice spoke "hello...", I couldn't speak but she could read the silence and hung up.