58. The Catalyst
There was a growing restlessness within me. I had been thinking about confessing to Maan but I wasn’t sure if I could muster up the courage. I was also wondering if I was doing more damage by not expressing myself. These were the thoughts running in my mind when I reached for work and found Maan in front of me.
Seeing him made me stop short in my tracks. He hadn’t noticed me yet but I took a moment to observe him. It had been so many days since I had actually looked at him. My eyes took his form in with a hunger I didn’t know I had. He was in conversation with his assistant while walking towards the main building. He was dressed immaculately, as always. Black was his colour. It suited his personality, attractive, mysterious, deep. The muscles in his arms flexed as he gestured something. It reminded me how muscular he was with a well-toned body. His hair was gelled away from forehead, like always, giving him the utmost professional look.
An ache began to make itself known in my heart and I could feel my eyes stinging. Soon enough, he was going to belong to someone else and I wouldn’t even have the right to such moments as this one too.
Why are you not even trying, Geet?! My heart scolded me.
I sucked a breath to pull myself together and Maan turned right at that instant. It seemed as if he felt my presence or he heard me because he looked right at me.
He stopped mid-step and mid-conversation. His assistant turned to see what had caught his boss' attention and then excused himself, leaving Maan standing there, gazing at me. Even at a distance of a few feet, he had probably seen the pain etched on my face. His body turned towards me, holding an eye contact with me as he took a step in my direction, only to halt right then. A flash of indecision appeared on his face before he schooled his features to something neutral. His eyes dipped, breaking the intangible flow of connection before he stepped backwards, flipped himself around and disappeared into the building in a few graceful steps.
Him turning away from me hit me like a ton of bricks. Something akin to a thread broke within me as I realised I could not bear to see him walk away from me. I felt the strongest urge to stop him, to bring him to me or to go to him myself and it was in that instant that Anaya’s words rang in my ears.
“How can you just let him be someone else’s, Geet?!”
“Are you giving up without even trying?”
“Even if it isn’t meant to be, at least you won’t be regretting not trying!”
I resolved right then that I was going to bare my heart to him. I was going to tell him I loved him and that I wanted to spend my life with him. Even though it was selfish of me to make him go through it now. But at least I won’t have to shoulder pain of losing another loved one for the rest of my life.
The rest of my day dragged on laced with anxiety. I picked up my phone countless times, but chickened out, clinging on to one excuse or another to postpone calling him. Later during the day, I decided I could text him. A well-thought out, articulate text would do the job and yet spare me from the possible embarrassment I was diving into. I started typing out my feelings and erased them. Typed up again and deleted again. Tried another time yet failed again before a small voice in my head made me realise that such a matter was not to be discussed over the phone or on text. I needed to meet him in person.
The incident which propelled me to finally take the plunge happened while I was returning home from work. Looking out of the window of my seat on the bus, I caught a glimpse of someone familiar. While the bus was waiting at the signal, I saw Maan’s mother and Zara in a bridal designer store. The initial pleasant surprise on seeing the familiar people at a random place wore off rapidly when I realised they were probably out shopping for Maan’s bride-to-be.
I gasped, as if I couldn’t breathe. It was real and it was happening. Maan’s engagement. And for me, the clock was ticking faster than I had known. My breath came out in short gasps as my hands tremored. The young woman sitting on the seat beside me looked over at me warily, probably deciding whether or not I needed to be aided.
I slowly shook my head to grab control over myself. It took a few deep breaths to finally gather myself enough to take my phone out from my bag. Without giving it another thought, I scrolled through my contact list, found his name and hit the call button.
It rang. Once. Twice. Thrice. My heart sank with every ring which went unanswered. Would he answer my call at all? It seemed not when the connection timed out without a response from his end.
I let my hand slide down from my ear and rest on my lap. I could feel tears clouding my vision. He had not picked up my call, which wasn’t something that had happened earlier. I recalled him turning away from me in the morning. Even remembering it again stung. And yet I could not begrudge him for it. Had I driven him so far away that he would not even want to have any contact with me? Did I not deserve his friendship at least? My brain mocked me. You were the one who didn’t like it when he called you your friend! And I knew it was right. I was the one to be blamed for my own misery.
It was with such a heavy heart that I got off the bus and went towards my apartment. The walk seemed longer today yet I slogged on, pushing myself just enough to reach inside the confines of my apartment before I let myself wallow in my sorrows.
I must have fallen asleep on the couch where I had sunk as soon as I entered my apartment because I was jolted to consciousness by the ringing of my phone. I hastened to take it out of my bag, expecting it to be Maan’s call, only to feel disappointed when the name on the caller ID was of my assistant.
After the call ended, I checked to make sure I had no missed calls, unread messages or emails. There weren’t any from the one I wanted them to be. Leaving the phone right there on the couch, I went to freshen up. It was when I was going towards the kitchen to fetch something to eat that my phone rang again.
Maan!
My heart started racing as I read his name flashing across the screen. With shaky fingers, I answered the phone before I could miss the call.
“Hello?” His voice sounded like music to my ears and I wanted to revel in it but I had to respond.
“Hi!” I felt nervous.
“Umm... You called?” He sounded nonchalant.
“Yes, I...” I cleared my throat. “I... I suppose you were busy.”
“Yeah.” He replied indifferently. “I was in a meeting and I noticed your call just now.”
“Oh!” An unexplained relief washed over me. He hadn’t left my call unattended because he didn’t want to talk to me. He’d been busy and he'd called back as soon as he had seen my call.
“So, what was it you were calling about?”
His voice brought me back to reality. My stomach was full of knots and twists as I knew there was no escape now. There was no going back.
I took a deep breath. “Maan, I need to talk to you.”
There were a few moments of silence from the other end of the line.
“What is it?” His sounded so unconcerned that it pinched me. My own attitude had brought about his distanced behaviour.
I didn’t let it distract me though. I had to get it out of my system but I didn’t want to do it over the phone so I said the next best thing.
“Can we meet?” I could swear I heard my heart pounding loud. “I don’t want to talk about it on phone.”
I waited with bated breath for his answer.
“Umm... sure, I guess.” The indifference was finally shaken away and replaced by uncertainty on his part. “When?”
I looked at the wall clock. It was now or never for me.
“Can you come to the central park in an hour?”
“To the park?” He sounded surprised but agreed. “Alright.”
I rushed to change into casual clothes as soon as I got off the phone. I didn’t want to think about what I was going to do because it would make it even harder to stay calm and composed. Instead, I focused on each task at hand. I changed into a pair of jeans and shirt, got out of the house and walked to the park. It was not too far from where I lived, although it was starting to get dark.
Reaching the park, I checked the time and realised I still had almost fifteen minutes to spare. Maan was not there yet and there weren’t many people around at this time so I chose a bench and sat on it. It was only then that I allowed myself to contemplate on what I was about to do. What could I say to make this situation less twisted than it already was?
The thought brought back the anxiety and I stood up, unable to stay seated. Pacing back and forth, I focused on calming myself while at the same time wondering if he would think I was stupid or selfish to confess my feelings now, when he was getting betrothed to someone else. He might, but I knew I had to get it off my chest before it drove me crazy. He was not bound to accept or return my feelings. It saddened me to think there was still a high chance this all could go bad.
“Hi!”
So wrapped up I was in my own thoughts, I had not heard the footsteps approaching me and Maan’s voice startled me out of my reverie. I looked up from the spot on the ground I had fixated my gaze upon to see him standing a few paces away from me, his aura oozing the charm which was innate to him yet his eyes showed the uncertainty he felt of this meeting.
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