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\nI bumped into him in front of a coffee house. Nothing has changed since I last saw him. He still looks the same.But his boyish charm that used to carry the responsibility of so many smiles,now had an edge of ripening maturity. And seeing that I smiled
\n\u201cHi, how are you? So long?\u201d<\/p>\n
I think I gave away the glimpse of my sudden cheeriness with my ear to ear smile. Thankfully, he returned my answer with an equal measured curve of his lips. Is he really that happy to see me??
\n“I’m good, Tina. How have you been? Do you wanna grab some coffee? I heard this coffee house serves the best Flirting-Coffee.”
\nI saw him getting embarrassed the moment he ended his sentence. And I laughed out loud.
\n“Flirting-coffee? I’m very sure I’ve never heard of this before. How could this cafe be the best in that?”
\n“I mean that’s the name of their special coffee”, he added sheepishly. “So do you want to go inside and taste it?”<\/p>\n
No, I shouldn’t. At all. Too little of time is left for wedding preparations and my evil friend Priyanka would kill me if I’m late. I wanted to say No and to my utter surprise, this is what came out of my mouth.<\/p>\n
“Yes, Ofcourse. I can join you for a couple of minutes” I said with a radiant smile. What is it about him? Why can’t I stop smiling? What would he think of me? That I’m that kid hopping on her feet elated over receiving her favorite present. I tried to compose myself.
\nWe entered and ordered the special coffee. I was noticing how nicely he tucks in his shirt now, how uniformly he folds his sleeves. No unbuttoned, disheveled gawky outfit. His hair nicely coiled and dignified mannerisms screaming of a friendly and approachable Gentleman demeanor. His face didn’t change but the eyes seem to have aged in a responsible way that you now feel you are heard. A person who has mentally grown over the years and now is much more attentive while you talk.
\nAnd his smile. Oh!! He’s smiling at whatever I’m saying. Please I need to stop else at this rate, I’ll document each second of my life spent after we parted. He looks so interested in listening to how much my cat troubles me, or if I\u2019m still that scared girl who sleeps with lights on, if I am enjoying my new job, or how many times I re-read Harry Potter. All those trivial details in our dreamy encounter made me lose track of time.<\/p>\n
I suddenly ask him so what’s the story behind flirting-coffee. His laugh is a bit shy again. He continues,
\n“Actually, according to this Coffee-House they let their coffee do all the flirting. So even if you are naive at this, you are covered” And then I jokingly add,
\n“So you wanted to flirt with me but didn’t know how to, right?”<\/p>\n
And we both laughed out so hard. Like the old times. Good old times. I don’t want to remember the bad parts with or about him. It’s only about a couple of minutes so I don’t need to ruin it.<\/p>\n
“Hey, you there?” He asks. I didn’t know when did I space out. “You still carry a lot of things on your mind, don’t you?” He winks.
\n“Oh, well\u2026” My phone buzzed and it was Priyanka. Oh God!!
\nI picked up!!<\/p>\n
“Hi sweetie, I’m sorry I’m coming. I’m on my way\u201d She’s yelling, of course!! I didn’t realize it’s been more than an hour sitting and chatting with him. She anyway gets paranoid over the wedding stuff esp when it\u2019s around the corner.
\nI continued “Yes yes, the wedding. There is nothing more important to me at this point in time” trying to tease and calm her down.<\/p>\n
I hung up. And tell him I’ve to rush.
\nHe says okay but something is off. He asks if I’m okay and I assure him but had to shop for the wedding and I’m late.
\nI picked my things and left. I walk fast but suddenly had this urge to bid him bye. I turn around and there he is. Standing in front of the coffee house, like he was waiting for me to turn. He looks sad. Something wore off his pretty smile. What happened to him??<\/p>\n
But I don\u2019t have time for this. I wave him bye and walk faster. In few minutes my feet comes to a sudden halt.
\nTHE WEDDING!!
\nOh, is this what?? Did it bother him?? After all this time? Was he heartbroken about this news? Doesn\u2019t it mean he still ….?
\nI don’t know why but I run back towards the coffee house. And I run fast. I wanted to confront him. I needed to hear something. Maybe some sort of closure that I failed to get all these years.
\nI reach there and he is gone. He has left.
\nWhat made me think that he would still be waiting for me?
\nHe is gone. Like before.<\/p>\n
(Part 1 ends)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I bumped into him in front of a coffee house. Nothing has changed since I last saw him. He still looks the same.But his boyish charm that used to carry the responsibility of so many smiles,now had an edge of ripening maturity. And seeing that I smiled \u201cHi, how are you? So long?\u201d I think […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[9],"tags":[598,599,97,596,568,600,597],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p95Fdd-Q4","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3264,"url":"https:\/\/kanikachughs.com\/flirting-coffee-part-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":3228,"position":0},"title":"Flirting-Coffee Part-2","date":"March 12, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"I saw her. There she was. Stuffed under the pile of shopping bags. So unlike her. I smiled. I kept staring at her for long. Something came over me and I popped up in front of her pretending it to be happy chance. She appeared delighted. Wow, it was a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Poetry"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kanikachughs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/img_20210227_035232_1264050649739740490415.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3447,"url":"https:\/\/kanikachughs.com\/how-to\/","url_meta":{"origin":3228,"position":1},"title":"How to…","date":"December 4, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"How tonot be stupidon 19th of that monthwith thumb caressingon that rectangular boxmaking lover out of a contact number,ears thirsty for that voiceand eyes red as a bridewhose groom forgot to visit her. Go easy on yourselfand smell fresh flowers againand this time, without them around,in the same coffee shop,on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Poetry"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3125,"url":"https:\/\/kanikachughs.com\/pour-in-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":3228,"position":2},"title":"Pour in me","date":"August 18, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The songs of wisdom, The spirits of the birds, The soft lessons of the hardships, The flirting act Of eyes, The feeling called home for the ones who are lost.","rel":"","context":"In "Poetry"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2937,"url":"https:\/\/kanikachughs.com\/the-mornings\/","url_meta":{"origin":3228,"position":3},"title":"The Mornings","date":"December 11, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"He got up She started with chores He brought groceries She cooked He made her fav tea She sips his fav coffee He got dressed She sighs the look He got ready for work She's off to start too She closes eyes and sees him He closes his eyes and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Poetry"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3591,"url":"https:\/\/kanikachughs.com\/take-me-away\/","url_meta":{"origin":3228,"position":4},"title":"Take me away","date":"October 21, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Painting by Ron Hicks I cackled at 6:40 am on a Friday morning recalling your months\u2019 old joke. When we laughed at everything on all the grounds we set our foot in. You took me to the younger days and non-disastrous moments in your faithful two-wheeler, twirling like in a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Poetry"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/kanikachughs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/img_23079058792560661361694.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":662,"url":"https:\/\/kanikachughs.com\/light-the-lamp\/","url_meta":{"origin":3228,"position":5},"title":"Light the Lamp","date":"November 22, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"People, today I came across a very beautiful short story and I wanted to share with all my fellow writers. One night Sri Adi Shankaracharya, a great Advaita Master, was desperately searching for something on the street outside his small hut. One of his pupils was returning after completing an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Free Writings"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kanikachughs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3228"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kanikachughs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kanikachughs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kanikachughs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kanikachughs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3228"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kanikachughs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3579,"href":"https:\/\/kanikachughs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3228\/revisions\/3579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kanikachughs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kanikachughs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kanikachughs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}