Snippets from a love story

It was her birthday. And our second date.

After an evening of drinking, eating, talking, we were walking to Marine Drive to sit and talk some more.

She was telling me, if I remember right, how her aunt wanted her to be more like this, more like that.

I told her, you are fine the way you are.

Ah, you like me, she squealed. And punched me on the arm. A devious smile was on her face.

I continued walking, my hands in my pockets. Hell, I admitted to myself for the first time, I think I do.

***

On our first date, she proposed marriage four times.

Each time, she casually slipped it in, in the middle of a conversation, catching me out unawares.

She would laugh at the momentary jolt I got, before I would get the joke.

Then, on the third date, we spent 17 hours together.

In those 17 hours, she revealed, for the first time, a side to her that she had buried under all her jokes. I suddenly knew, I just knew.

I decided the next time she proposed, I would accept.

She sensed it. I am scared, she told me, you don't react any more when I talk of marriage.

I would have blurted it out then, but I had a feeling it would be taken for another joke.

But later that evening, I casually slipped it in, in the middle of an SMS conversation.

***

Her answer was No.

She didn't give any reasons, and I didn't ask for any.

Well, that was that, I thought to myself.

Later, she called. She said she liked being with me, enjoyed my company. But her answer was still No.

Back home, Vinoo asked me how the trip with her went.

Life, I told him, is getting complicated.

Vinoo hummed about in the kitchen, fixing a cup of tea for himself. He smiled. What terms people have for falling in love, he said, life is getting complicated!