She - Part 4

Although she was aware of my changed behavior toward her, she did not think it was appropriate. She knew my parents quite well, they knew about her and her boyfriend quite well and her boyfriend thought I was just a friend. It was disaster from the word go.

I was panicking. I had liked a girl first time in my life, actually the second time in my life (but the first fizzled out before it became serious) and she was very angry about it. I told her that I just talked about her feeling and it was really not necessary to accept it. I knew her feelings for her boyfriend and I knew where I stood in her life.

I tried talking to her to bring back the relationship in the so-called normal state we had been but things just wouldn’t improve. At last I personally had to visit her in Pune. Since the last 6-8 months she had been in Pune, she had asked me a number of times to come and visit her and I would always give her reason of being busy at work which was true.

But this thing was desperate and desperate situation needed desperate measures. It was the first time I had been in Pune and that too in the night. Chetan came with me for given me moral support. We met and behaved almost normally. She prepared food for us. She refused to talk about us the whole evening. At night sitting there on the window on that cold January night, I got her talking. We talked, we cried and we knew that it would never work. She was surprised that after knowing abut her and her boyfriend, How could I even think of proposing to her. She did not accept my proposal but atleast she was in talking terms with me.

After I returned back to Mumbai, we kept in touch and I reluctantly accepted her decision. We still talked after that and she was more forthcoming about the proposal now. She felt bad about saying No but we both knew that saying yes just because we were friends and I had always supported her may not be a wise thing to do.

By February we were talking about us in particular. At Valentine Day, she told me about how her boy friend brought her flowers and made her feel special. I made another trip to Pune after that. We talked about Valentine Day and she made me give flowers to her friend in the office. A gesture I never understood till date but her friend who was married had received flowers first time in her life. The happiness on her face said it all. I still wanted to celebrate Valentine day with her but we never had a chance after that. Thats was the only Valentine day when I was actually close to her, although not physically.

After Valentine Day situation changed, positively for me. My giving flowers to her friend had a positive effect on her friend. She and her friend did talk about me after that when I would call her, she would tell me what her friend said about me that day. It was actually boosting for my ego and improving my chances. I started dreaming more about her and those were nice dreams.

Now our conversation were longer without the accusing of “How could you?” and I did not try to convince her. We both left it to fate and we both agreed that I came a little late in this world and also met her late in life. She was three years older to me too. The calls became daily and we talked about a lot of things we did not talk about earlier. As we both were sure that we did not have a future together we went with the flow.

One day she decided that she would come to Mumbai to meet me. She was to stay overnight and go back the next day. My parents did not know that I had proposed to her hence they did not have problem with her staying overnight at home. I picked her up and we came home. We had talked about us a lot on phone about us and this was the first time we talked on our way home.

After dinner, we went for a little walk. It was already past 10:00 PM and we walked along the linking road behind my house. We sat on the small concrete benches lined at the side of the road and we started talking. On that small concrete bench, late into the night we talked. I poured my heart out. I talked to her without even trying to convince her.

I was speaking about us , about her and about her life and her happiness. And she listened. She asked me “Why?” and I spoke about why? I told her how I wanted her to be happy and how I wanted her to be happy. I went on to tell her about my childhood and my dreams and she was still listening. I was speaking for such a long time that we did not realize that we had been sitting there for more that 2 hours.

When I saw dad searching for us on the deserted road, we knew that we are in deep trouble. After we reached home, mom and dad gave me a sound scolding. We never realized that it would have been quite dangerous on that deserted road for both of us. We quietly went to sleep. The next morning she got up early as she had to be in the office in Pune. I was supposed to drop her to the Bus stand but the atmosphere at home was all charged up and we decided that she would go alone.

I also reached office and called her up at the Hotel to confirm that she had reached safely. That night I talked a lot and I spoke a lot of right things. That night we did not speak about her boyfriend but only spoke about us and our past and our future. That night I spoke my heart out for the first time.

The Next day, she said “Yes”

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Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3