I lost track of time, in our usual, neverending video call. Mumma’s girl, as they call it.

It was already 9.30 and my unwashed plate after dinner was drying on my study. It was dal and the usual bickering about no taste. It was a regular Monday with Amma complaining about not getting my eyebrows done as now I am a college lecturer.

As much as I despise such comments about looking like Shinchan, I love being the monkey I am. While our banter aired, I got two missed calls, back to back.

The name on the screen let my heart skip a beat with some minute dumb expectations. Always.

“Where are you?”

“At the hostel, where will I be at this hour”

“Come down quickly then”

“Down where and what now ?”

“Can you stop asking so many questions and come down quickly”

“Don’t play with me”

“I swear I am here, come down. Don’t take time to change. I have a bus to catch tonight”

“Oh”

“See you real quick”

The past three years of ‘on and off’ texts, two awkward video calls, casual flirting, anticipation, and mailing a gift, just everything ran into my veins while I was trying to squeeze into my black jeans. I pressed that perfume on, tamed my curls, figured out how to use a live location, tiptoed into the rubber slippers, and locked my room to see this man for the very first time.

So many questions, a weird tingle in my stomach, and then a bus to catch! WOW

It would be one haste of a first meeting.

We both started walking towards each other following the live location mapping, and it beeped that we are on the same road, it was dark and we both were confused. After a call, I saw a shadow with a huge backpack walking toward me. I was laughing at the irony of how funny a first meeting is, in the middle of a street, with not much buildup. With something which felt like an awkward half hug, which was cute honestly, we started walking. Or rather I started pacing cause i didn’t know what to say or behave, to be honest. He wore a red round neck Tee, with jeans and a pair of shoes. He looked like he went backpacking across Bangalore. I never understood the fascination with adults wearing backpacks. The initial awkwardness was in the air and I could feel my heart pacing.

“So what’s the plan”

“ You are asking me, for a plan at 10 pm, when you have a bus to catch at 11. Like seriously”

“I wanna have dinner though, can you suggest any place”

“ Depends on what you wanna have, and I don’t think we can go to a very fancy place, I am wearing slippers!”

Honestly, I was so conscious of having a conversation almost in the middle of the street at this hour of the night. So I half-mindedly said, we have a decent place nearby and just like before, I took to my foot quickly. I appreciate his swift action and capacity to understand my mind by reading my face. He pulled me back in a small jerk, looked into my face, and said,

“What is the hurry and what is making you so conscious”

“I am a teacher now, might have students walking around and watching their professor walking at odd hours might not help me in class”

“Ohhh” “That’s alright ma’am, don’t worry even they are humans”

And with a coy smile, we both started walking to the diner. And out of all the days, I had already finished my dinner and was full to my throat. Such days!

The dinner place wasn’t far, and neither was a fancy one. Simple, light, and a tonne of known faces. The classmates who I have never conversed with, the juniors who I didn’t need to meet much fairly. God help me.

All of them had an introduction and so was he nice to be a gentleman and wish them all. That was the first hit to understand he is a warm human and I liked him better in person. Are you blushing? A bit. Yes.

The alarm in my brain won’t shut up much till we actually sit down, face to face. The unwanted deliberation of right or wrong was maddening at such moments.

“So what do you feel, now that we have finally met?” I understood the sly smile in that question and decided to act cool.

“You seem thinner”

“You are seeing me for the first time”

“Still. Pictures. What do you wanna have now”

“Something light for the ride, Chicken Biryani!”

“Seriously? That’s your definition of light”

“ I will have chai if they have it at this hour”

Small bite-size actions of people do define their personas. They got two plates and set it in front of us. Even though he knew I ate, he still served me two spoons first, and only after that, he took to his plate. He broke his pappadam and gave it to me too. The second strike of liking him, sharing pappadam needs maturity. Funny, I know. I didn’t get chai and he got lemon juice. Or lime juice. Meh.

The pace of the dinner started a tornado in my stomach not knowing what was next and what now. The roads still had a slight glistening from the evening showers. College students were slow pacing for their near-midnight snacks and post-dinner cravings. And my eyes were running through their faces just not able to relax. While a halt came in.

“What now, where can we sit and talk peacefully”

“If you could behave like a girl, I could sneak you in my hostel, my roommate is out of station”

We both burst into laughter after two seconds of sly, blushing eye contact.

“I think I have an idea, come walk”

“Will I get an auto to the bus station”

“Yeah. Hopefully, it's still Bangalore” “Hundreds of autos and two hundreds of cancellations”

We had two batches of roads to cut across to reach the place I had in my mind. It wasn’t evident yet, but at each crossing, he held my hand like a toddler and Strike three. But I let my inner, hyper sixteen year old to calm down before he could sense the pink on my face with his engrossing phases of eye contact.

After five minutes of toddling, we reached.

“A closed shopping mall, was the idea you had in mind, to peacefully talk”

I sensed the sarcasm dripping much.

There were stone benches in front of the entrance of the mall, where people were chatting, having softy cones, some romancing at the dim light and some were worried about the mall security guard. And then there was us. Awkward, confused, smelling like chicken Biryani with a huge traveler's backpack.

He picked a corner bench, at one point even questioning the idea of the place I suggested. We sat in close proximity, discussed his schedule for the past few days, and told him how much he resembles my brother and out of all, he has a bus to catch.

I just couldn’t understand what was happening or rather, what next, or what now, until…

“Shall I stay back?”

I guess my world paused for a second, and I think I was half smiling while he was looking into my face expecting an answer. Like missing his bus to just spend time with me. Whaaaattttttttttttttttttttt. Do people actually do that? My heart beats racing.

“Miss the bus? You mean?”

“Yeah, I could take it tomorrow night, that's alright”

“Really?”

“We could do something, we could rent a car or a bike”

“Ummmm” “Where will you stay? And what will we do tomorrow”

The fact that I didn't mention is that all this while his eyes have a spark in them, and it melts something inside your soul with those gazes and long stares. It was difficult to not blush, giggle, or say something stupid.

“The question is do you want me to stay” Those big eyes…….. God.

A two hundred times yes yes yes! Of course, I wanted him to stay. I had already imagined us having lunch tomorrow at a cozy place, and clicking pictures. He has a thing for pictures. His phone vibrated and by the second time, he picked up and answered it.

By the time he came and sat again, we heard the whistle of the security guard and his steps toward us. We slowly moved and found a spot very near and sat on the cold stone bench. It was slightly windy, beautiful weather to be outside.

“So? What do you think?”

“I just don’t want you to feel like a day wasted, by missing your bus just to spend time with me”

“There is no time waste dear, but tell me what you feel now” “Right now”

Pause. Eye contact. Brushing elbows. Yellow beams of vehicles. Cheeky smiles.

“Oh dear, my friends”

He said, staring at a car on the road.

And I was trying to understand what he said, and by then two guys and a lady were walking towards us.

“They are my friends, he is the one who called sometime back, and was very keen to know who I am with right now”

“Woooow, that's a lot of dedication in Bangalore traffic”

The interaction was beyond funny. It was two sets of people trying to hide their sly, awkward expressions with the situation all were in. I greeted them, they seemed nice. But they didn’t leave a moment to not pull his leg about chatting with a girl at this hour

Outside an empty mall. I understood it was a small attempt to just make him conscious and see him stuttering without adequate explanations. They just wanted to check up on him and say bye.

They left us more confused than we were mentally.

Their car left our sight. Silence. We looked at each other and burst into laughter.

“My cheeks are hurting, what just happened”

“They will kill me for the rest of my life with this one incident”

“This night couldn’t have gone any better”

“Ask me”

He checked his watch, it was about time. I didn’t want the night to end. I didn’t want him on that bus. But I couldn't muster my everything to say yes, jumping up and down.

I was too scared of a duckling.

“Alright then, I will walk you back to your hostel, it's late. I will take an auto from there.”

Strike four. A gentleman.

On the pavement, he put his hand on my shoulder, and asked me,

“What are you expecting right now, or rather what should we do, tell me clearly”

He could see my expression of the predicament in the headlights of cars flashing on my face. We sat down on the staircase in front of a closed shop near my hostel.

The stairs were too small, we practically sat on each other. Scooting like rabbits in the rain.

With a smile, he looked into my eyes and said, “If I am staying tonight, i want you to stay with me” And I lost my trail of thoughts completely.

I think my mouth made a small O shape with no sound effect and a blank expression.

Stay with him. Where. How. What will I tell the warden? What if someone knows? What will I tell Amma? What will happen after that? What if things run into something more? It's the first meeting. Think. But I wanna spend time with him. But not sure overnight. That's too much of a step for me to take on the first meeting. And a few more thousand questions flashed in my mind within those five minutes. Conundrums in such stages.

“Don’t tense or force yourself for a response, it's okay. Just tell me what your heart says, that's all” and he held the palm of my hand. Strike Five.

“I don’t think I am ready to stay with you already. But I do wanna spend time with you, rather spend a day with you tomorrow. If you wish to stay. But like I said, I don't want you to feel useless, waiting on me.”

He got up, pulled me up.

“I will go take the bus” Before I could react, he hugged me like a fluffy panda toy. My heart let out a sigh. Just when I could say something, a most unexpected kiss landed on my neck. Strike Six. Never have I thanked my perfume dabbing abilities more than that one moment.

I felt something melting inside me. I think it was my soul. Then I couldn't process anything. Time, place, smudged kajal, rubber slippers, bus. But he could see me with a difference. He was good at reading subtexts. He knew I wasn’t ready for a night stay, but I craved his company. We had such long chats of what we would do at our first meeting, and where we would go and it all seemed so quick. Three years. I knew he was disappointed, but like I said, he respected my decision.

We took some more steps, and reached the end of the footpath.

“So”

“Soo”

“When will you come again” “With a day at least and no buses to catch!”

“I don’t think it will happen so soon.” My heart sank a little.

“It took us three years to meet once, I hope it doesn’t take another three”

“Do you remember that you had to give me a gift when we met?” He said adjusting his seemingly heavy backpack. He softly spoke,

“A tight hug”

At that very moment, my heart just took a plunge and so did I. I grabbed him into the tightest hug I could possibly gather and smiled ear to ear. And he did it again, pecked on my neck. You cute bastard.

We didn’t recover from that. That hug, pending for a long three years. He leaned on the pole behind him, with me still in his arms. His hands were around my back in a knot. His eyes stuck to mine. My hands were on his chest.

“If I had an option, I would have taken you just like this, in this same shape. And then talked to you for hours and hours, would have done what we felt like. Slept together. Cuddle together. See new places. Eat. Click on your pictures. I just want that right now. I don’t wanna leave you. And I like your perfume” Bingo!

I couldn’t see those big eyes anymore. So I buried my head into his chest. I knew my answer, but I wanted this too. It was a cliche moment of curbing your heart or brain. And I did pick my brain. I look up at his warm eyes, those dilated.

Strike seven.

“I wanna kiss you so badly now”

And my response was a cheeky smile, but no words. Just my heart racing. Two pairs of eyes trying to find meaning in all this. Somewhere I wanted that too. But in the middle of the street. Romancing on the streets. Is this how Bollywood works seriously?

All these thoughts paused when he actually leaned in and pecked my lips like a small bird. Before I could react, he stopped an auto. Still holding me halfway. And reaching to my face he said,

“If I don’t get that bus, I am coming back and taking you with me…” His eyes were searching for an answer and my head shook with a sheepish smile I could ever offer.

He crossed the road, looking at me.

“Wait for my call.. And I am taking you”

For once, I wished he didn’t get that bus.

A sudden sense of emptiness took over me when I saw his auto drifting by. Standing on the street, thinking about what just happened.

I locked my room, sat on my bed, touched my own lips, and believed this happened and it was me. It was me in a meet-cute. The anticipation was weird. It was thumping in my chest. My phone rang.

“The bus took off without me”

.    .    .