Strawberries with Cream Part IV

Kaay deu bola sahib (what would you like)

Ek rose pahije (I want a rose)

Hee ghya (here)

Kiti jhale (how much)

5 rupees

Anjor gets in the car and quickly shoves the rose in the glove compartment. He doesn’t want anyone to see it before the planned time. He’s glad that he has a car now. Two trips to India ago he had to do all these shenanigans on his crappy scooter. He laughs at the thought of trying to transport something as delicate as a flower on his scooter, and then laughs even more at the thought of having transported strawberries and cream.

Anjor walks into the café and takes a seat in the group of his old classmates. His mind is restless. The moment he recognizes her in his peripheral vision, Anjor makes an effort to look nonchalant and to appear deeply engaged in conversation with the person across the table. Naturally, he comes across as a complete idiot. She floats over to the table, grabs a chair, and sits down.

“Hi.”

…

“Anjor, I said hi.”

“Oh…uh hi, I didn’t know you were talking to me”

Anjor spins around. Within a fraction of a second of meeting her gaze he immediately looks down. He is afraid that if he is exposed to her smile for more than that in public he will say or do something embarrassing. Besides, no one at the table knows that they had coffee together.

The next couple of hours pass in a haze. The group moves to a different café because it’s too loud, everyone is happy to see their classmates after a long time. Anjor behaves out of character. He pokes a little too much fun at one of his friends, he laughs a little too much at his own jokes, he talks a little too loudly, claps the person next to him on the back a little too hard. Days later he realizes that he did something obnoxious every time he thought she was looking at him. He is not too concerned about this meeting – his thoughts are too occupied with what is to be done afterwards.

As the evening saunters to an end, Anjor finds himself walking back to his car. Everyone notices him leave just a little hurriedly, but that’s ok. He knows that she is walking to her car in the same direction – he needs a head start. He has taken care to park his car just a little way ahead of hers.

“Hi”

“Hey what’s up?” she says, rolling down the window of her car.

“I…I just…I just wanted to give you this.”

“What is..oh. Thank you!”

“And I also wanted to ask you out to coffee…again…in person...”

“Yeah sure, give me a call.”

“Ok, I will. Bye!”

“…You’re still standing next to my car”

“It’s not my fault! I tend to do stupid things every time you smile at me.”

“You’re silly.” She laughs.

She drives away. Anjor forces himself to stop thinking about her so that he can drive safely.


“Will I have the good fortune of seeing you today?” begins the text message conversation.

“Hey, I don’t know I might have to go out with some friends tonight.”

“That’s too bad. Since I’m only in town for another 7 days I would like to spend some time with you.”

“Listen, I just want to make some stuff clear. I just got dumped by a guy and am pretty hung up…I don’t think I’m ready for anything else right now.”

They switch to Gchat. Anjor starts.

“Look, I don’t expect you to drop everything and jump into something serious with me. I’ve barely asked you out to coffee. It would still be nice to meet and talk, and see how it goes from there.”

“What’s with all this weird stuff suddenly anyway? I mean I like talking to you…but I’m not over that guy.”

“I see.”

“And he obviously doesn’t care. He’s a different person now. And I’m sure you don’t want to listen to my stupid story.”

“Of course I want to know.”

“Let’s not talk about that now. Anyway, I really hope this doesn’t make things weird between us.”

“Nothing is weird. It’s actually very simple. I like you. I want to get to know you better. You are coming out of a bad breakup, and don’t want to form any new attachments just yet.”

“It’s not that simple. When did all this happen? It’s very weird…you’re not even in Pune.”

“That is true. I’m not in Pune for most of the year. That will take some explaining.”

“Explaining which can be done now.”

“As you wish. I was never able to do anything about the crush I had since I never got the chance to interact with you a lot, and I wasn’t sure about what to do since I don’t live here. During some of my visits, you weren’t single, and during some of my visits, I wasn’t single. The moment you walked into that café I realized that my life was never going to magically present me with an opportunity to explore this possibility unless I did something about it. Better late than never right?”

“That’s…unexpected. You’re a really nice guy.”

“But you just want to be friends etc etc right?” Anjor has had the nice-guy conversation before.

“It’s just that I’m in a very different mindset right now. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to get over him.”

“Does that mean you’ll never date anyone else?”

“At this point even thinking about being with someone else feels horrible. I’m hoping that time will change stuff.”

“Me too. The best way to get over one person is to find another.”

“No it’s not actually. That’s a rebound and it’s the stupidest thing to do. Anyway thanks for understanding. I have to go.”

“Well, if time ever changes your mind, let me know.”

Anjor closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. He cannot just give up.