…. Continued from A Proposal Part I
5:15 PM
I’m waiting outside her place waiting for her to come down. I waited for a while, I was getting a little impatient and restless…. And Lo! Time just froze, my anxiety, restlessness, the sounds around, people everything, I mean everything just faded to little nothings, reduced to an insignificant existence. All I saw was her, I know its a bit hard to believe, but there I was experiencing that very emotion. She was beautiful, elegant and charming. She was wearing one 
of the tops I had gifted her 2 weeks back. I wonder if she feels the same…..
“Lets go”, She said.
She has already perched herself on my bike. I felt stupid that I had become oblivious to what was happening around me.
“Right!”, I started my Bike and started heading towards Koramangala like a pre-programmed bot.
“So, where are we going today?”, She asked.
“What?”, I’m a little distracted now, I’m praying to all Gods that I don’t crash into anything, but I couldn’t stop staring at her thru my rear view mirror. She is so Damn beautiful.
“I said, where are we going today? Did you bring the Uno Deck?”
“Yeah”, I replied, remote and disconnected. I was beginning to feel the gravity of the situation.
“Ok, so where ARE we going today?”, There was a tone of ultimatum in that question. My brain pre-empted all the thoughts to tend to that query. I’m convinced that brains of any guy is hardwired to respond to such queries immediately.
“Hmmm.. How about… CCD at Indiranagar?”, Was my preferred place, isolated and chances of bumping to anybody I know was remote.
“No, its too far off, lets go somewhere closer, How about Boca Grande?”
Damn! Boca has a very high risk of bumping into known people.
“Hmmm…How about we go to Gloria Jeans instead?”, It was a nice place, We get good coffee, and I very badly need one. I’m a disaster waiting to happen…
So off we go to the Gloria Jeans. To my disappointment, half of Koramangala was there. It was crowded and only place I got had an old lady sitting facing us. I was not comfortable.
“Lets go from here!, we will go to Mocha”, I said, irritated and bugged.
She was not happy either(with the crowd, that is).
“Okay”
We took our stuff, and left the place. I was lost and dazed…. I was lost in a sea of memories, all the time I spent with her….
“……. Are you listening?”, She asked, I had no clue what she said.
“Err… Sorry what was it again, I was a bit distracted”, I said, since I could not come up with a better excuse.
“What happened? You seems to be pre-occupied since the time you picked me up, Everything Ok?”
“Yeah, I’m fine… just some stuff at office”, I reacted, yeah! right! Im sure she could smell the B*ll Sh*t from about a mile away. ( Paranoia is kickin in big time!)
So we hop on my noble steed and head out to the next watering hole. I was distracted. She is normally the reserved type. However, with me, she is normally a bit chatty and we usually engage in incessant small talks. She would talk about how someone will come and give her a bunch of red roses and sweep her off from her feet. Or about her fans in her neighbourhood… She needed a “Knight in shining armour”, she needed someone to elevate her from mere ‘existance’ to living. Will I be able to live up to her expectations? She is intelligent and beautiful and I can be best described as ‘Oink!’…..
“Are you done surveying the junction?”, a bit irritated, and a very sarcastic tone of hers snapped me back to my senses.
We were on my motorbike, stuck at the signal. My head was automatically performing a radar sweep for babes (When a guy is not fed with instructions from higher intelligence, he automatically initiates a radar sweep). I’m sure there were a lot babes on the road that day, but most of my interrupts were masked, including SIGBABES. So, nothing registered. All I could think about was her. In a strange way, she was sitting right behind me, and all I was thinking was the stuff we did together so far.
06:30 PM
We reached our intended watering hole. I park my noble steed in the stable. We walk into the place. All the seats inside were taken, besides there is absolutely no privacy there… So I find us a spot at outdoors, it was nice and isolated. “Perfect!” I thought to myself, “If she slaps me or walks out on me then I will be spared of all the embarrassment ”.
“So, where is the Mystery gift?”, She started with her attack.
“err… Lets order first.”
“Okay, anymore hints?”, she asked.
“Nope! just a little while longer!”, I replied. I have been dropping her with hints throughout the week. I guess she has some idea.
“Okay….”
Somebody took down our order, and I run out of time again… she is going to start banging on me for the gift again, I need to figure out a way to….
“Okay, NOW can you give me the mystery?”, She was eager.
“Any guesses? List out all the hints I have given you”
“NO! Why should I guess for something I will be getting now. Just give it “
Oh oh! Now she is eager to know what is it. Her patience is running low, she is smelling something fishy is going on. Situation is getting more and more hostile.
I reach for my pocket and take out the Uno Deck.
“This is my gift?”, She asked.
“Nope, I will give you the gift after our coffee arrive”
“Okay!”,she said pretty calmly.
Now, this is interesting, all of a sudden her eagerness vanished. I did not know how to interpret that! My brain was going haywire at this sudden twist.
Our Coffee came pretty quickly. Now I’m out of time!
I tuck back in the UNO deck in my jacket, next to the letter I had written for her.
She is going to ask again, I knew it.
“So?”, She looks at me with a hint of excitement.
“So??”, I asked her back, as though I knew nothing.
“So, what is it?”, She asks, almost too eager to contain herself.
I give her the Key chain and rambled, “There you go, I did warn you that is nothing important!”
Now I have my hands in my Right Jacket pocket, Within it is a piece of folded paper and a deck of Uno Cards. I have make a decision, I have make one right now! Which one will I draw out? How is she going to react? I’m sure she has seen this coming, or will it be a complete surprise? Is this the end of the our little friendship or will it elevate to a new level? “Now isn’t the time to think of that, Just do it man!”, I thought to myself.
I initiated a countdown in my head “5…..4…..3…..2…………………………….1………..0.5……….0.4……..0.3……..0.2…..” , I’m chickening out, I just took the letter and placed it on the table, next to her.
“What is this?”, She asks, Shocked and surprised.
“I want you to read it!”, I replied.
Patience is not her virtue. So she opens it and starts reading from some random location, trying to figure out what is it.
“Read it from the beginning please!”, I plead with her.
So she flips to the first page, reads for about 10 seconds and placed it back on the desk
“Oh my God! I don’t want to read this!”
“Please! I want you to! I might fumble if I speak about it.”
She picks it up and starts reading again. I thanked all Gods I knew.
She reads the whole thing, she had a very solemn expression. Situation was fast turning into a disaster, I need to gear up for a firefight.
“Why? Why did you have to do this?”, her question had no anger, just a mild disappointment.
“I had to, I thought this over and I’m sure of it. Besides, this is the only way forward”, I said.
“How so? We could have remained as good friends”
Ok, I have to react to that quickly. “Well, we cant be this good a friends if you get married off to someone, can we? Can you justify the number of SMS ’s we exchange in a day to him?”
She is thinking now, Good!
“Besides, accept it, knowing you, haven’t we crossed lines of friendship at times? you know it!”, I was scoring big time!
“Yeah!”, she answered, her HDD still whizzing.
“I need time to think about this!”, She said, still thinking.
“Okay! take your own sweet time”
I felt relieved. I could sleep again. However, she has to worry now. She asked me for time, I will give her that. Besides I need to recharge myself for the next volley of questions she might ask.
We actually finished the coffee, and believe it or not, went for a walk followed by dinner and then dropped her back to her place. It was a good day. I just hope that her thought process ends up with something positive… 
