There I was sitting in his car as he dropped me back home
from a perfectly lovely dinner. He had spent the night talking about the woman
he left his wife for, who in turn left him (karma is a bitch). Yes!!! I know and trouble was his name-o. And i am the trouble magnet.
As soon as we got into the car all the stories of heart
breaks stop and instead we talked about us. We reminisced about the past. He
remembered what I was wearing the first time we met. I finished the rest of the
story. It was epic. I was in college and I was working
late. Some girl (not imp) was giving me her number while she was running off
into the distance, her parting note was- “call me if you need anything”. In
walks the boy, coolly, a bottle of thumbs up in hand, sipping it he recites his
number. He then smiled that smile that could wage wars and melt hearts. And said you
should call me too, he winked, “if you
ever need anything, at all”. I was 16 and this was by far the coolest,
smoothest line anyone had ever used on me. I was sold. It helped that he was
simply beautiful. We shook hands exchanged smiles and names and that was the beginning of the
strangest friendship ever.
WE LAUGH. We are only half way home.
We then move onto the stories of how I played the pretend gf
to protect the actual gf, a girl his parents didn’t approve of. We talk about the film we worked on together.
We talk about the time we met, a month before his wedding. We ate a meal. We
laughed. He walked me home. We held hands. It was all bordering on wrong. At my
door we lingered. We hugged each other tight. It was a kiss that could have
happened but shouldn’t have and so it didn’t.
We laugh some more.
He says now he wanted to kiss me back then. I remind him why
we didn’t. He reminds me that now we were both single. I assure him I came to
that realization hours ago, but he’s in a fragile state and I just want
to be his friend, as I say this I know I don’t really mean any of it.
We reach my building he gets out of the car walks me to my
gate, much to my distress. I’m not sure how much self-control I can manage. We
hug. I turn to leave. He asks me to stay 5 minutes. He calls me a tease. It almost as if it was 3 years ago, except
now this kiss can happen (we are both single- kinda). He holds me. We stand
there looking at each other and then he leans in. I give in easily. His lips
touch mine. It’s a kiss I’ve waited for, for years. And then right in the
middle of it, a man asleep on the street next to us, FARTS really loud. And the
kiss that took 10 years to happen, it shatters into fits of laughter. The both
of us are convulsed in laughter. We laugh for a bit before we both part ways.
TO BE, or not TO BE , or just TO BE continued another evening
years from now. Only time will tell.
