"THE LAST TAXI RIDE"

"IT'S QUITE COLD HERE"

We reached our last spot of the day – the beach at marine drive. The sky was auburn, with the sun almost set and not visible anymore. It was partly dark and, yes, it was quite cold there. Surprisingly it wasn’t much crowded there. I walked out of the car, towards the sea, barefooted. I felt he didn’t follow me. I looked back to see him lean on the drive’s side door, he didn’t see me looking at him and I turned my face again.
(Next part is written with Deepak’s perspective).
I didn’t follow her. I thought she’d be needing her space and would be busy enough to look back. For a moment I looked at the traffic passing by, and again saw her, she was walking away, didn’t look back.
I could see her standing there, not too far, but, alone; her hair untied, flying in the wind. I wish I could see her face. No! Deepak stop! How dare you think like that. You are just her escort for the day. But, she is also my friend, ehh, sort of. I locked the cab and started walking there. Half-way I thought, why go empty-handed? I went to the cotton candy stall first.
I don’t know why, I just went and stood next to her. I silently offered her a cotton candy. But, hey, my hand was shivering. Was I scared? Scared of what? Her reaction? And there it was. She wasn’t expecting it and was totally shocked. She smiled gently and lifted her eyebrow, “So, you know how to treat a lady!”… I didn’t know what to reply,  the question was straight but difficult to answer…
“I…”, before I could complete, I didn’t notice that even my other hand was shivering a bit and I  lost the grip of my cotton candy, which fell on the ground. She chuckled, “Oops…”.
I shut my eyes and smiled on what I had done. She offered me her cotton candy and thus we were sharing it. She was still staring at the sea. I was confused, what to speak, what to not! Why was I? It isn’t a date…or is it?? No no no…
“You want to say something?”, she asked me while I was lost in the trail of thoughts. How did she know? I was astonished. “No”, I replied. “Hmm, … I felt so”, she said. It was dark. Faint yellow light from the street lamps lit the area a bit.
“It’s quite cold here!”, she said. “Yeah!”, I took a while and replied, wondering… Mumbai?? Cold??
Something seems not right about her. She is surely hiding something. I wanted to ask her. But, I couldn’t ask her directly. So, I started with something, “What are you looking at?”
She gave me a confused look, remained silent and looked again at the sea. Damn, I blew up my chance, it’s obviously the sea, why did I ask that stupid question. Now, I went a bit straight, detour is full of hurdles… “(would you) mind if I ask you something?”
“You really want to ask me something?”, she said, like a little girl. That made me feel awkward. She laughed and said, “I was kidding! You were asking something!”
She seems changed. She isn’t the person whom I saw minutes ago. She seems so different. She could talk childish! While I was thinking, I wasn’t aware that I was looking into her eyes.
“What’s up Mister, what are you looking at?”, she said in her actual rough tone. She’s back. “N…N…Nothing…Uhhm…Yeah, I wanted to ask you something… ask you….uhhhm….something….I think I…”, I was fumbling. She laughed, “So you can blush too!!!”
“No!”, I said immediately, looking in different direction. “I just wanted to say, rather ask, I feel that, you are probably hiding something, aren’t you?”
She became serious for a moment. “Why do you need to know?”, she replied sharply. That hurt a bit, “Sorry!”, I replied and kept quiet.
She was still looking at sea. A tear rolled down her eye. “Heyy! I am extremely sorry”, I said. I wondered how’d she react if I tried to hold her shoulder. “I am fine!”, she said, wiping her tears. But now she started crying. “Are you okay?”, I said. She turned and hugged me. She was crying a lot. I was shocked. Something’s terribly wrong. I stood still. She stopped after a while. Looking at me she said, “I am sorry!”, and she pushed me a bit and went towards the sea. I didn’t know what to do. Go back to her, or wait. But, I couldn’t see her cry. She was still sobbing a bit. I stood next to her.
“You know what, I had read somewhere, sharing reduces tension”, I said, while looking at the sea. “Some things are not worth sharing!”, she said, “Deepak, I don’t want you to know that part about me! So, just please don’t ask me about that, could you speak of something else? Please!”.
She called me Deepak, now that’s more strange. “Uhhm, Okay, sorry, so what’s with this taxi-ride stuff? You often do this?”, I asked. “No… just today!... first time…last time!”, she said. “Suddenly?”, I asked. She smiled with her wet eyes, “Many things have happened in my life, suddenly! (I) never got to see how beautiful the life is, (I was) always bound with responsibilities and my race to survive. Never lived my life for myself, never properly lived it for my family either…”. “So, for whom were you living for?”, he asked. “I don’t know!”, she said in a confused tone, her eyes filled with tears, “I have been so stupid! (And) now that I feel I started living, the hourglass is running out!”
I didn’t get the last part, “What?”, I asked. “Nothing…I meant… life is busy!”, she said. I could tell she was lying. I was still looking at her. “It’s so cold here”, she said with the most painful voice.
There was silence.
We spent some more time there. It was getting late. So, we moved back to the cab. I could see her, smiling.
This time, she didn't sit in the backseat; rather next to me.
Maybe she loved to lean out of the window.
We reached her place. I parked near her gate. I moved out to go and open her door, but she already did. I leaned on the roof of the cab, while she was making her hair proper. "Thank you for the day, Deepak" ... "You are ...  welcome!" ... ..
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