Moments not love

Love in the Rain- A sketch on a dark window pane

A friend of mine, I won’t call her a friend. Say, a Twitter acquaintance, we have been a part of a few online spaces and must have met at a mutual friend’s birthday party. That’s where we come to know, oh! we live nearby, around the corner around a km apart.

But since there isn’t any sexual attraction or physical friction, both of us aren’t that excited about the whole thing. 

But then days pass by and one odd day, around 10 pm, I get a text from her, hey, where are you?

I am like, hey I am home!

She says, would you like to meet right now, if you are busy we can do it some other day.

Now, I am like I had an altogether different plan and there was this sudden urge to say no, as it was already 10, and without sexual friction in the equation, I didn’t want to sacrifice my Netflix and drinks plan. 

But then the Covid-19 pandemic made me empathic like those two years were some horrible times. I remember crying buckets and seeing people die, so I am like, ya she is new to the city. What if she is lonely? What if she just needs company and a small chit-chat?

And I ran through all these emotions in like say, 90 seconds, and I reply, sure, why not. Meet me at McDonald’s. 

In like 10 minutes, I am there, and she is on time as well. 

And what follows is a series of mundane interactions…

After a pause, we discuss what to eat, and where to go, and finally decide to go to California burritos

Now, based on her behavior, and what she said, she was extremely hungry and on a diet too. I had my chicken and rice, so I was all good and refused a generous offer for a plate of nuggets. 

So, now she is eating before me and we talk about life, her job, and how she is finding Bangalore. It was quite a mixed talk, a good talk. She finishes eating, we go and talk outside for a while, and then bid each other goodbye. 

Now, this must have happened in May, fast forward to December 31st…

I was getting bored on New Year’s Eve, so I texted all my friends to share one good memory of 2022,

And lup dup lup, my inbox is filled with messages,

As I scroll through them I see this girl’s message,

When you click my key chain photo,

And came to meet me to light up my mood…

I was like woah, I never knew that, I thought you must have forgotten about it.

And I thought about it for a while, the first meeting, and I still think about the moments we shared…

Usually, in love stories, people capitalize on these moments to build a relationship, and that is what makes me believe that,

More than a feeling, love is more of an effort, more about giving chances, more about putting faith, and having experiences together…

But alas if we had a certain sexual friction going on, 

Probably we would have flirted a bit, it would have been a long night, and when we came out of the cafe, it would be raining, and as we got wet in the rain, we would kiss…