Encounter

1. Her Encounter

It's been more than five years. I live far from him; I never thought I would face him ever again. It's a small world after all. I should have ignored him, I guess. But he didn't do anything wrong and I used to say, "I will always have a special place for you in my heart." And deep down I knew - I couldn't unsee him. It was too late, he saw me too. I could see his eyes, they were full of questions. Those questions, I had but was too late to answer. To my surprise, those eyes didn't seem to hate me. I did a horrible thing to just let him go. I told him, "We should be happy and leave each other for good reason" and I also lied about how I would be in contact with him frequently enough. And I realized, I lied to him for the first time then, and my heart cried out. But usually, when you lie you are doing it on purpose and that's the evil one. Is it good to lie for someone's benefit? I know we are hiding from them and they won't probably feel bad about you. But if you love someone and lie to them for their good, you know they would hate you but deep inside you have a clue about how better their life would be with the lie. I saw his pupils, wide open. This happened when I first saw my baby girl. Maybe that was love, or maybe he was shocked but I know when you are shocked your pupils widen but you don't smile. Yes, the smile, that's what I had when I held my baby, and tears rolled out. He was there with wide pupils and a smile. I saw how his eyes changed his emotions from being curious to being happy. He must've thought, "I love her more than I want the answer."

He said, "Prakriti, hey."
I had to say something, and I replied, "Hey, Hrishab."
He asked me, "How are you? It's been so long."

I had to reply instantly but I was looking into his eyes, they had love and only happiness. They were open as wide as they could. Maybe he wanted to enclose me in his one look. But they showed different emotions than I hoped for.

He again said, "Prakriti! You've grown chubby." and smiled a bit more. I used to be skinny back then and I always wanted to gain weight. I used to say, "You always fool around me and mess with me, that's why I am not gaining weight." He would teasingly say, "I like you skinny and I love how you look right now. If you gain weight I won't marry you." and laugh. I caught him lying and hit him with my hand just so he wouldn't get hurt and hugged him and said, "I hate you." And he used to reply, "Me too."

I had to reply now.
"I am fine. Yes, a little bit of weight." I replied with a mocked laugh.
I again added, "You got skinnier than before. Are you all right."
"No, no, no, I am fine. But yeah I lose some weight. Just naturally nothing else"

I knew he always wanted to be slim and I used to tell him I would love him however he looks. But I would often ask him to lose weight because I didn't want him to get disease resulting from obesity.
I asked," Why are you here in Pokhara?"
"My office sent me and my team for some recreational tour."
"Where are your friends then?"
"They are in the hotel on the lakeside."
"Why did you come this far from the hotel then?"

He paused for a while.

...

When we were in the 3rd sem of our bachelor's we traveled to Pokhara on a college tour. He was there for the first time. Our groups were different but we traveled on the same day. We encountered each other on the road, many times. When we reached Pokhara, I called him and we roamed alone. He was very happy to spend time with me. He wanted to visit Pokhara, not because he had never been and it's a tourist destination but because it was my home town and I often told him about the place. He wanted to see where my house was I didn't take him but I told him where it was and how I got there. 

He used to say, "I will be there someday when I will ask your hand with your family." I blushed back then.

And another thing was, whenever we were in a fight he would call me or text me first and say, "I didn't do it on purpose, it just went through."