Today. Sigh. Nandita was dreading the next few hours as she reluctantly applied the black kohl defining a pair of eyes which spoke a million words, or so people often said. Wheatish, almost dark, a colour she proudly flaunted, her skin shone as she brushed off some shimmer from her red jumpsuit. She was only going to this party because she had pinned her hopes on getting one glimpse of a man whose presence delightfully unsettled her. Samar. It was getting colder much like her life and the night. She had seen him faintly smile at her just before he exchanged conventional greetings as he passed her by with his pretty wife. As the evening progressed, the mindless chatter and banal conversations thrown in with group photographs one after the other called for a final drink. So much pretension was all that she could handle for one night. "Red-Bull-Jager, no ice, in a Collins please," she told the bartender as she saw Gaurav laughing loudly in the distance as he and his friend peered into his phone. Gaurav and Nandita had been married four years after a short period of courting and realisation that they could be great friends and partners for life. Nandita pursued her career and Gaurav his. They were the perfect couple. They went for holidays, loved to entertain, had good friends and two beautiful children. It was only too perfect to be true. "Hey, how much have you had to drink?" a deep voice reverberated in amusement behind her. How had she missed the fact that Samar had the most infectious smile she had ever seen in her life. Maybe it hid behind the charmingly smug disposition he doled out towards her at regular intervals over the last eight years. "Not enough," she replied, as they started walking out, following the last people leaving the party. Samar walked with Nandita and to her surprise, sat right next to her in the car with friends that was heading out to moments that would change their lives forever.
Feels like yesterday. Samar stood tall occasionally leaning against a chair, engrossed in detailed explanations with a manager who nodded his head furiously in agreement. His magnanimous voice caught her 21-year-old attention in the doorway, where she learnt by assumption that the pretty woman there was his wife-to-be. Samar, his family and their legacy were well known of in the city. He got married to Radhika soon after, had a beautiful son and constantly worked hard to live up to everyones expectations and his own, secretly. He had the dreams, the drive and the vision but he missed her.
Tonight. Blue, green, red, yellow and orange, the dance floor lights flashed aimlessly as they stood by the bar whispering words that meant far more than palaver. After years of disorientation, they found their way under the lights and stared at each other for a brief moment. Consumed with love and new found courage, they sealed their eight year impending deal as their lips met with an intensity that was almost frightening. There were hundreds of people but no one saw them and they saw no one. Nandita knew he could see it in her eyes; the love, the pain and the fear. They ran back through the crowd and settled back in the world where they didn't belong.
The morning after. Samar had finally seen through Nandita and there was no looking back. "Is this a joke?" asked Nandita, trying to sound unfazed by the boat that had just rocked her life. It was a storm that she had most happily waltzed in as he replied "I wanted it and want it, as much as you do." Unsure if that storm would kill her or pass over, they discovered a love as they continued to live in a world that only belonged to them. They fell in love, it wasn't a mistake, it wasn't a dream, they were wide awake.
Its not a short story, but it is. Nandita and Samar couldn't endorse the idea of love at first sight, but eight years from that moment, they did not realise that there are moments when God or fate or some cosmic sense of humour rolls its eyes at two stammering human hearts and says "Oh, for crying out loud." They wrote to each other, daily letters in digital age. They laughed as they spoke and trembled with joy when they kissed. Never together, but happily ever after.