"She said a yes!", Noel barged into Arjun’s room without even knocking. He rarely did that but the screech in his voice & the jump in his stride answered why. Arjun jumped out of his seat to congratulate him; super excited that he was. He was Arjun’s partner-in-crime since school days. Their life path had been so similar that people either didn't believe or were shocked. From being in the same school then joined the same college same workplace after graduation then the same B-School & finally getting placed at the same dream job that's where they stood today. They shared the same apartment for a year & then Noel decided to move in with this girl, his best friend & he had fallen in love with her but was in constant state of denial. It took 2 years for him to realise that. And this was Arjun’s moment of I-told-you-so & Noel nodded it of casually, “Ya ya ya”.
Today Arjun was sharing an apartment with his best friend too (and Noel was there to help and gain clarity all the way) & yes he did feel differently about her but he couldn’t even word it for there were lot of ‘complicated’ reasons; as he put it. Noel thought different about it. “Chai?” Noel was still chirpy and elated and how happy Arjun was for him he couldn’t even express *Guys!*
“Oh did I tell you yesterday when I left office a little early in this jittery mood I called Ashok buddy. Hahaha I can’t believe that.”
“I can! You would have called anyone a buddy yesterday given that you were all nervous & you called me some 25 times and I failed to receive!”, Arjun winked.
Noel mischievously retorted, “ya, what the fuck were you doing? Making out with Ananya?”
Arjun hit him hard with the roll of paper, “It was Sunday you smart ass and we were watching a movie and also my phone was on silent mode didn’t realise you called!”
“Movie? Seriously? C’mon man after almost 2 years that’s where you still are?” Noel always made the sadistic comments which hit the weakest nerve.
“Do not forget before you proposed Ira we discussed for days. You were sceptical right? An year back when you asked her out… finally… and see where it leads to… we went over all the possible conversations for months. You dropped slight hints here and there she picked it up & bam! You moved in and asked her out. I still donno how a sweet girl like her said a yes to a bastard like you. *wink* but yaa there was always a spark between you guys.”
“And you are trying to say there is no spark between you two? So you want me to use flintstones to show you some spark, eh!”
“Bad joke, seriously man! Grow up!”
He puffed his cigarette and let the smoke in the subtlest manner as always. He smoked his cigarettes as passionately as he would kiss Ira. He enjoyed every puff as he took.
Their conversation stalled for a brief moment as they were checking out the girl who walked into the building. Arjun again hit Noel with the paper, “Stop checking her out, you gonna ger married!”, he said pitifully.
“I will still be a guy, fucker!”
“By the way she’s Dilip’s new chic”
“Dilip… the sales guy?? Where does he get them from??”, Noel said in his usual melodramatic & shocked manner.
“Hmmm… Agreed!”
“So, where were we? Ya Ananya! Why not move to the next stage?”
“Let’s not start again. I told you its complicated”
“Do you love her?”
“I guess I do!”
“Does she feel the same?”
“I donno!”
“How the fuck will you know? If you don’t express or ask… how will you know?”
“I donno!”
“Do you wanna know?”, Noel was irritated.
“I donno!”
“For Christ’s sake, say something other than ‘I DONNO’.”
“Look I am happy the way it is okay? I don’t wanna corner her & lose her. I’d rather be happy like this seeing her everyday than losing her and never see her.”
“Why are you so pessimistic about you and her? Everything else in life you have always been positive even about a non-achievable sales target. How does it just swing to the other side with respect to this?”
“Let’s discuss this some other day. Let’s celebrate tonight. Sandy suggested this new place which has good food, music & beer. Let’s check it out!”
Noel finally gave up by throwing his hands in the air and threw the cigarette and crushed it really hard, “Fine suit yourself. We will talk later if you want. But just wanna say don’t lose something as precious as this dude… I am saying it with experience. I was sane enough to grab an opportunity for life. And ya, we can celebrate!”
“Hmmmm… Will check with Ananya too… Am sure she will be crazily ecstatic & gonna yap about it the whole time. Oh Lord! So when’s the day?”
“A month from now, 1st March!”
For continuations on this tale click on -
Three's a company... Two's a CRIME
