Ria Bandyopadhyay
Sep 8, 2018 · 4 min read

A Different Flavour.. part 2

The last drop of the melted ice cream struck her all of a sudden how they had lost track of time sitting there. She quickly took out her phone and became white in fear to check eight missed calls from her fiance and his mother. Even he had a few calls, which he missed and forgot to call back as well. They wrapped up as fast as they could and hurried towards her flat while she called her fiance to apologize for missing the appointment. She made up an excuse that she couldn’t finish her work on time, after which missed the next bus as well. But nobody’s stupid enough to believe a childish excuse as that and before she entered her room, she had already spotted them waiting along with her parents.

It was an hour long discussion, she was scolded many times for being absent from an important meeting like that. What was more disturbing for them was her getting out from a stranger’s car that late at night.

She couldn’t control her tears and rushed to her room, laid down in her office clothes, shut her mouth to the pillow and cried her heart out. She had never felt so guilty before. How could she forget reaching on time? How could she take her fiance’s words so lightly? What if he never forgave her for this one? How would her impression come up before her in laws after that night? The questions started to haunt her for sometime until they changed their flow to a whole new direction. Why would they expect her presence so invariably if they wouldn’t even consider her opinion? Why was she expected to sit and watch like a puppet? Why would they expect her to be so meek all the time? Why? She still had no answer to any of these. Plugging in her earphones, she played her favorite song ‘Attention- by Charlie Puth’ and tried to get some sleep.

The next morning, things appeared to have cooled down. She went to office on time and returned earlier than what she had planned the day before.

A few days passed just like that, until one evening she got a text from the same guy again. There was nothing important he wanted to know, just her whereabouts, especially after that night. He was concerned for her as she had almost started sobbing before getting off his car.

Unable to decide what to reply, she ignored the text and went back to work. On her way back, she had genuinely missed her regular bus and had to book a random carpool out of option. As she reached the car, she noticed the front seat was already occupied and had to take the back seat. She sat down quietly after introducing herself to the person driving and took out her earphones to play a song.

“Hi..”, a known voice spoke from the front seat. To her surprise it was the same guy.

“Oh god! You!” she exclaimed in a mixed tone of shock and joy.

The person driving was glad that now everyone knew each other and the drive wouldn’t be so uncomfortable for any of them. They kept on talking about random topics, while she sat back and listened quietly. More than the topics, the coincidence lured her attention. Why would she meet the same guy whom she was trying to avoid over texts. How would he feel now, knowing that she didn’t reply to him earlier the same day. How awkward was the situation. As she kept on thinking about all these, the car reached her neighborhood. She thanked for the carpool and got off and started walking towards her lane when he suddenly called out to her.

She stopped at once and turned back only to find him walking towards her.

“I live a few lanes down from here. He had to take a U- turn to drop me there so thought of getting down at yours and walking back to mine”, he explained.

“Oh, nice. Which society? Hope it’s not too far. Walking alone could be really boring, that too without your earphones plugged in”, she added in a casual manner.

“Well, if you are so concerned, why don’t you accompany me till my lane? We could have an ice cream there and I would drop you back, I have my bike parked outside already”.

She surely wanted to say no this time but said yes, again. What was it about this stranger that couldn’t be denied, no matter how hard she tried? She kept wondering as they slowly paced together towards his lane. They had no particular topic in mind, yet the conversation never stopped. Food, traveling, sports, likes, dislikes, music, etc. One after the other, they shared their views on anything and everything, only to find out how opposite they were.

Instead of getting bored by the constant contradictions, she was rather more interested in his opinions. Something was there about this man that made her feel very comfortable.

She was never too bold to walk alone with a stranger like that. She never walked a random person down to his lane before. Neither did she ride on anybody’s bike just like that. And yet she was doing all of this in one night, something, she kept telling herself, “something is weirdly interesting about him and I can’t get over it at all”.

As she reached her room, she found her parents waiting for dinner. She was late again. Only this time, she didn’t miss any unimportant appointment her Fiance booked without her consent and expected her mere presence. Once again, she had no real excuse for the delay so chose to be silent and hear all the scoldings and get to bed as early as possible. Before going to sleep, she opened her chat box and replied to him, “thanks :)

    Ria Bandyopadhyay

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