It was such a horrendous day at work with my boss garnering all the recognition I'm meant to receive. Such a bitch! I just wonder if this Christmas shall I ask Santa Claus to take Sumedha as a return gift from my side? But then I don't want the only Satan presently residing on Earth to get a free reindeer ride. Ha-ah won't let you a chance to grab the freebies Mrs. Sumedha Raghav.
Finally the much awaited Saturday evening has arrived and I'm ready in my navy blue, knee length dress. A little dash of makeup and I'm good to go. "WILL PICK YOU AT SIX" he'd messaged me in the morning. I saw his car making its way into our compound and my heart is missing its beat. I checked myself in the mirror again and went downstairs.
"Hello punctual lady" he chuckled. I smiled and got inside his car; and cursed the seat belt throughout the journey as it does a thing that exposes my breasts a little too much. So we finally reached this super cool book store BOOKLAB. It's almost like my second home; I spend hours buying books and sometimes just watch books when I don't have money to do the 'buying' thing.
"Hello Nisha Madam. We've got that book you ordered." said the reception guy.
"Pack it I'll do the payment while leaving." I smiled.
"Whoa! You're a regular customer." Aditya grinned.
"Ah-ha"
"And I were the one bragging about this place" he said apologetically.
I said nothing and smiled. Books are mesmerizing and I can spend my whole life in a book store. Apparently, a self indulged librarian is not very much in demand.
"So what's your genre?" he queried.
"I don't really have a genre. I read everything"
"So does crime fiction stand a chance?"
"Mark Billingham, Anthony Berkeley Cox, Agatha Christie, P.T Deutermann, Caroline Graham are mostly in my list of crime writers."
"And love stories?"
I said nothing and smiled.
"What Miss Bose? What's with that crooked smile?"
"Nothing" I smiled again.
"Come on tell me."
"Um okay well I'm kind of stuck with the fault in our stars" I said and hid my face with a book.
"That's adorable Miss Bose" he laughed.
"No it's not. I mean I'm twenty five and I'm still stuck with teenage romance"
"Okay tell me. What is it that makes it your favourite?" he looked at me with brief eyes.
"There's this line in the novel: Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book. The fault in our stars is such a book for me" I smiled and we kept looking at each other and I wondered if Hazel Grace felt the same when she looked at Augustus Waters.
"You're adorable Miss Bose" He said and kissed my forehead. And if there were clouds above the ninth cloud I'd be making my way to it. This whole thing felt euphoric. We kept switching shelves and discussed authors. I told him about my blog and he promised to follow. He bought the murder on the Leviathan of Grigory Shalvovich Chkhartishvili. And I collected the rare, few notches of K.Hussein. Then we went to the Pixie Cafe.
"So tell me about work" he said, sipping through his coffee.
"I work for the Youth Craze magazine"
"Wow I'm quite a follower. You're a writer there?"
"Um not a writer, err, I'm Sumedha Raghav's personal Assistant."
He said nothing.
"So do you have a boyfriend?" he chuckled.
"Um No" I blushed.
"What about you?" I asked and prayed to hear a no.
"O I'm totally single." Phew!
"Whoa!" I exclaimed.
"What?" he laughed.
"Nothing I mean you're an amazing man like an eligible bachelor material."
"Hah I don't give me much of an importance"
"And why is that so?"
"Well I'm just an invisible dot in this huge universe. Like I mean I'm not even visible if you see at a large. So I don't really think we humans should give ourselves so much of significance."
"Mr. Jha Can you see that star twinkling amidst the infinite?" I said pointing out towards the sky through the window.
He nodded.
"Isn't it amazing that in this huge universe there're infinite galaxies carrying uncountable cluster of stars, stars that have their own planets with their own satellites, and somewhere in just another galaxy our Sun stands to be the most significant star for us?" He kept looking at me without uttering a word.
"The star at which I just pointed out, doesn't make much of a difference to you, Am I right?"
He nodded.
"But far somewhere a lot of light-years away it could be the most important star to someone. Size can ever decide significance, but your sentiments. And even if you're just an invisible dot amidst the Universe, isn't it amazing that you being so small get the chance to see it glitter and the star hangs clueless of its spectator?"
He held my hand and kissed it.
"You're one wonderful woman Nisha" He uttered my name for the very first time and I got Goosebumps. I pulled away my hand for him not to notice the Goosebumps.
"I mean I can literally listen to you the entire day. And let me repeat Miss Bose, you speak awesomeness" he said and smiled.
I said nothing and blushed till my cheeks turned red.
We talked for a little while and then he dropped me home. Gosh! Best Saturday evening ever.
YOU ARE READING
My encounter with life #Wattys2016 #JustWriteIt
General FictionStory of an ordinary girl and her journey through all her insecurities, self-loath et cetera. It's when she finally comes in term with herself, her life takes a 180 degree turn. To know more read her story.
