One shot: Interlude

One shot: Interlude

Though quite dramatic an expression it is, it indeed is true in her case. She knew him all her life. Ever since she remembered anyway.

He was her elder brother's closest friend. Him and her brother although drifted apart due to their career choices, due to life that had intervened, had always come back to pick up where they had left off.

She remembered riding cycles with him and her brother, then she remembered her brother getting a separate room and stop hanging out with her.

Though at the back of her mind, she knew he was always around, he only came before her very rarely. Whenever they met, ironically it was like an interlude.
She had worn her first saree when she had gone to his sister's wedding. Although she was struggling with her sari, she saw him struggle with his dhoti and somehow it bought a smile on her face.

He came to drop her off at the airport along with her family when she left India for further studies. After she hugged every member of her family and cried, and when she came to tell him goodbye, awkward as they were, they didn't know whether to shake hands or wave. He raised his hand in a mind to wave and misunderstanding, she had given him a high five. It was the first time she saw him laugh and although her eyes were wet with tears, somehow that cracked a smile on her face too. In a rush of tenderness, he did the unthinkable and patted her head, almost ruffled her hair.

Years passed, she finished her master's and got a job. He had got an opportunity to go on-site and had been to the same state she was working in.

Though both of them knew they were around, they didn't know if they could call the other to catch up. They weren't friends after all. Neither of them wanted to impose. The call that they wanted to make to each other stopped at their dial list hence.

An year passed and the thought slipped from their mind. Around New year's amidst the celebration, amidst the crowd and shopping, when she had been walking in the crowd, still not okay from the break up she had faced two years ago, she was standing before a shop with a diamond ring at display, watching it and thinking of a million what ifs.

It was then she had seen him. The reflection of a face familiar, the eyes kind and happy to find her, the lips upturned in the friendliest of smiles that it mended a part of her broken heart.

She had turned to face him. He looked taller than she remembered. And the woolen cap he wore made him look cute. She was prettier than he remembered. Although she looked a lot paler than she were.

She smiled and her eyes were wet again. When they approached each other, as was their tradition, they high fived first, before laughing aloud, and embracing each other in a bear hug.

For the first time in years, she felt safe. And he felt home.

And somewhere up above, cupid took his bow and arrow, ready to shoot. They were no longer each other's interludes.