Love, Just like it happens in the Books

Hello Friends! Sharing with you a light hearted short story I wrote today. Hope you enjoy it the way I did.

Rohan thought this was love at first sight, and blushed. “Just like it happens in novels.” he thought to himself. Tomorrow was going to be his big day.

After a long week at work, Rohan needed some peaceful time. So he decided to grab his regular light cappuccino with a chocolate chip cookie and a John Grisham novel, at a nearby café. This was his “go-to” place whenever he needed a break.

As the mystery unfolded, and Grisham’s lead character inched towards finding out who the killer was, there was a soft laughter that halted Rohan’s reading marathon, and brought him back to reality. He looked right, looked left to figure out who it was. But there was no one he could back track the voice to.

Rohan thought it must be his mind playing games.

As he took a bite from the cookie, his tongue played with the many chocolate chips that flooded his mouth. He couldn’t feel more grateful about this moment!

Once more, he plunged into the fast paced crime thriller and whisked away all other thoughts. 30 minutes into the book, a strong, yet enchanting perfume caught his attention. He turned leisurely and there she was.

Sitting there, was the most beautiful girl he had ever, come across. She wore a simple knee length white dress with a gold braided belt. Her hair was long, wavy, golden brown… falling brilliantly over her chest. “Happy Birthday Neha!!!” shouted her friends as the waiter brought a huge cake from the kitchen.

She gasped in surprise and was very obviously jumping with happiness.

Rohan was so enthralled by her presence that he had a strong urge to go and talk to her. He waited patiently and impatiently, for the little celebration to finish, post which he would get his way with the manager and get “Neha’s” details out.

Meanwhile, Neha and Rohan exchanged a few glances. He smiled, she acknowledged. Later that evening, a 100 Rupee note helped Rohan extract her full name. Neha Srivastava. That’s all.

So.

The next thing he did was hunt her down on social media, follow her on Instagram and track her updates and check-ins on Facebook. She seemed to be a die-hard facebook-er. Every place she visited and everything she did, was possibly up there!

A week went by, and he had still not gathered the courage of hitting the “Send Friend Request” button. It was this evening’s update that made Rohan lean on his bean bag, lost in thoughts, fascinating and blushing about how his love story would unfold.

“Off to Kemps Corner Crossword tomorrow. #MyReadingMarathonbegins “, said her Facebook update 2minutes back.

The store was barely 5 minutes’ walk from his house. And he couldn’t wait for the night to pass.

As he entered the store with wandering eyes, he settled with the latest release of a famous Indian author, in the fiction books row. As he glanced through the summary and reviews, he heard the doorbell cling as someone entered.

He looked up and once again, there she was. Walking gracefully, smelling like flowers, with her hair tied loosely and a strand playing down her forehead, Rohan couldn’t help, but ogle with awe.

Rohan was hoping she would enter any of the book rows, and he would start a conversation thereon. He was an avid reader, and knew practically something or the other about any and every author.

She took a brief look at all the latest releases and went up to a small make shift shelf that was put up just outside of the store. Rohan wondered what could have been more interesting than the company and smell of books.  

Rohan walked towards the counter and as the view got clearer, he was devastated. He saw his entire love story, even though imaginary, come down crashing. He knew this would never materialize. She indeed was from Venus, and he from Mars.

He left the store hurriedly.

Later that evening, “Dude, what happened today? Did you talk to her?” asked his friends during his evening walks.

“I never said anything to her. Not my type, I guess.” said Rohan.

“Are you crazy? You practically spent the entire week stalking and fascinating about her… and now you say that she is not your type! What’s the matter Rohan?”

“Well, it’s because she picked up Kindle over a book.” confessed Rohan.

While two of his friends could not agree more and nodded in agreement, the third one just said, “Dude, seriously!”