Anteiku

A dark sky, thunder rumbling,

Rain thudding against the glass window

Desolate roads

A small warm room with 5 tables and several chairs

The subtle noise of a coffee machine

Cutlery clinking on plates and a quiet environment to spend a perfect evening

The perfect romantic setup

That is if you have a romantic partner in your life

I sat alone in the ghosted café

Filled with people yet away from my point of focus

Sipping on the dark shot of espresso

Flipping through the pages of ‘The Namesake’

Focusing on each and every word as if,

Every single one of them had an individual soul

It was perfect for someone like me

Someone who was more into fiction than reality

Someone who knew that books could hold secrets better than humans

Someone who kept their human interaction as limited as possible

Away from the silent chatter of people,

Glancing at me from the corner of their eyes

Possibly murmuring about my loneliness

I sat there in my own world

A world where humans couldn’t talk and the only sound

Was of the rain hitting the glass windows right in front of me

And the coffee machine whirring

A perfect world for someone like me

And the world could exist for as long as I wanted it to

One of the perks of being a regular customer

I waved at the young waitress to ask for a refill

She was new, quite young,

Possibly younger than me

She looked at me in awe

I wouldn’t blame her

I was sitting there for 5 hours now and that was my 11th refill

I loved sitting there under the warm yellow light

Especially on days like this

When I can quietly sit down and read until they closed down

But as I flipped a page over, I looked up from the book

Towards the entrance of the café

The door had just creaked open, and in front of me was a woman

Normally such things don’t have my attention but her aura was different

Difficult to explain

Drenched in the rain from head to toe

Her breath was heavy

Quite possibly from sprinting, looking for shelter

Easy to understand as there were hardly any shops opened in the visible radius

She stood at the door for around 4 and a half minutes and I could hardly take my eyes off her

My subconscious had even closed the book I was reading to focus on her better

It was as if she was the book I was trying to read

After what seemed like an eternity, she walked toward my table

“Do you mind if I?” pointing towards the empty chair kept opposite to me

I looked around and everywhere else was full

I was too lost in my book I didn’t even know the number of people trying to shun the rain

“Not at all, make yourself comfortable!” I said opening my book where I left it after a few seconds, signaling the waitress for another refill

“The Namesake, that’s an interesting read.” She said looking at the title of the book

I just noticed her long hair was still drenched

Water still dripping from them as she slowly shivered trying to warm herself by rubbing her arms

“It was actually the first novel I ever read.”

She blew air from her mouth at the end of the sentence

Looking at her shiver, I could make out that she was definitely still freezing.

I asked the waitress for a towel and lucky for her they had one in the house

She wiped her face and arms and then dried her hair

The waitress brought her a cup of hot chocolate as well

She looked quite better now

No longer shivering, for the least of it

“Yes, I love this book. I’m reading it for the sixth time” I said as I sipped on the hot espresso

“I think you’ll love me too then.” She smiled in a chaotic evil way and held out her hand in front of me across the table “Ashima”.

Of course! Wife of Ashoke. Ashima Ganguli!

“I wasn’t expecting that… I'm ______” I shook her hand and let out a little laugh

I closed my book and we started talking to one another

We were like any other couple sitting in that café at that moment

Except I had met her just 15 minutes ago

It felt like I knew her since the beginning of time itself

Charming, attractive, extroverted, enthusiastic

I could go on and on about her from just 15 minutes of conversation

Reading her was more interesting than reading the book

2 hours into the conversation and I have kept the book in my bag

The rain was still pouring

As if Zeus wanted us to sit together as long as possible

As I asked for my 16th refill, her face had a puzzled look

“I can see you like coffee”

It was easy to sense the sarcasm in her voice.

“Coffee doesn’t cheat on you. It certainly doesn’t give you shitty reasons for a breakup”

“Ouch! So, you’re saying that’s a no?” She smirked sipping on her hot chocolate which wasn’t so hot now I suppose

“You didn’t ask anything yet” I smirked back at her

She locked eyes with me and started speaking,

“ A dark sky, thunder rumbling,

Rain thudding the glass window

Desolated roads

A small warm room with 5 tables and several chairs

The subtle noise of a coffee machine

Don’t you think this is the most perfect date anyone can ask for?”

That was indeed a perfect romantic setup

Even for someone desolated from the world

Even for an introverted romantic,

Even for someone like me!