Because I Love You – Chapter 2
If you missed the previous chapters, then you can find them here. Chapter 1.
(Disclaimer: The whole story is a work of fiction and is in no way related to any person dead or alive. The names, characters and situations occurring in the story are imaginary and any resemblance to any person is purely coincidental.)
10am,16th January, 2010, Central Park
I couldn’t sleep last night. Being in love or rather ‘back in love’ is like temporary madness.”Why is Riya crying? Is she in any trouble? Or she just wants to be with me again?” kept boggling me. It’s not that I didn’t want her back in my life, but it was very difficult for me to accept that the ‘breakup’ was my fault and I was guilty. We were going to meet at the same place where we had spent some of our most cherished moments. That very bench in the Central Park reminds me of those intimate talks we had. We had eventually planned our entire future on that bench.
I reached the place at exact 10 am. Riya was always on time and it was I who was always late. Today also she was on time and for a change, I too was. I saw Riya from a distance, she was wearing a white salwar kameez with a red chunni. I remember I once told her that white was my favourite colour and I think this colour combination today was purely out of that. She was looking as pretty as always and no less than a princess straight out of those grandma’s fairy tales. “Why the hell did I bring my ego in between? She doesn’t deserve to go through all this because of a jerk like me. She deserves better”, I said to myself. I walked slowly towards her. The way Riya’s eyes were hooked onto me was making me nervous and feel bad about myself.”Why did I do this to her. Why does she still love me? Or does she?” . Riya had brought a birthday present for me.
“Happy Birthday Sweetheart”, said Riya. I thanked and hugged her. I don’t know why I did this; maybe I also wanted her back in my life. I guess, I did. And I was very sure that I will not be able to say this to her. Riya gave me my birthday present.
“Why are you getting so formal”, I said. Riya didn’t comment. She asked me to open the gift.
I opened the wrapping and it was a wooden box with a rose and a Gucci wallet. I had been eying that very wallet since our internship days and Riya had promised to gift me that when I get a job. What is bought is always cheaper than what is gifted and sometimes the manner of giving the gift is worth more than the gift itself.
”How did she know that I had got a job?” I wondered.” I am still in touch with your friends”, she admitted smilingly. I don’t know how she used to read my mind. She still does. Perhaps she knows me better than I know myself.
That gift reminded me of all those promises we had made to each other, all the amazing time we had spent together, how Riya used to be the center of my universe and how I used to wait for days just to meet her for one hour. A tear or two dropped from my eyes. I wanted to apologize to her. Wanted to say sorry for all the things I did, for not understanding her and for not even trying to give her a chance to explain things to me. My heart sank and sank deep.
Riya saw this. “Let’s have your favourite butterscotch milk shake”, she said smilingly.
She remembered that I loved Keventer’s Milk shakes. On the way to the shop, Riya reminded me of all the funny moments we had spent together at this place. How we ran out of money and begged the shopkeeper to leave us without paying, how we were caught by a relative of mine here and how we used to bunk our office and spend our entire day in CP.
While we walked to the shop, she said “I am in Delhi for two more days” and before she could complete her sentence, I broke in “Let’s spend the next two days together then…” Riya smiled. I got my answer, not only to the question I asked her, but also to the inner conflict that was going on inside me.
“Do I still love her? Is it over? Does she still love me? “. I wanted to ask her so many things. I wanted to know how she had been. Life had given me a second chance.
It’s true that we don’t know what we’ve got until we lose it, but it’s also true that we don’t know what we’ve been missing until it arrives.
June 2009
We ordered two Espresso coffees. I had always heard that ‘a lot can happen over coffee’, but today, I just wanted something to happen. I just wanted love to happen.
“So Rahul, which college are you in”, Riya questioned.
“Bangalore College of Engineering”, I replied. “Computer Science?”. I nodded. She was in IIT and me in a local Bangalore college. But love was blind, I thought.
“So how come you are interning in Delhi then?” she asked. I explained to her that my parents were based in Delhi and my college was in Bangalore, so I wanted to come to Delhi for my internship so that I could stay with my family.
“That’s nice.. I am based in Dehradun, but there are no good IT companies in Dehradun so i am here “she said smilingly. It was a million dollar smile. As she spoke, her eyes said a thousand words. There are so many girls in this world but so few for whom you can wait for your entire life, and I had realized by now that she was the one.
She was interested in talking with me. She was taking the lead. That is so unlike girls, but I think she understood somewhere that I being a shy guy would not start the conversation and she had to take the initiative. While we were taking the waiter served us our coffee. It smelled like fresh heaven. I am still not sure what was better, having that wonderful coffee or seeing Riya talk. I guess the latter. The way she flipped her hair lock made me like her even more. I was about half in love with her by the time we sat down. That’s the thing about girls. Every time they do something pretty, you fall half in love with them, and then you never know where the hell you are.
While we were sipping our wonderful coffee, few employees started looking at us and passing stares at Riya. It made me uncomfortable. I was not used to this. I mean, I had never thought this would happen in offices and that too in an organization of such repute.
Pointing to them I asked “Don’t these things make you uneasy?”. “Naah.. Not at all. Initially it definitely did, but one learns with time. And obviously, there are some side effects of being pretty”, she said wickedly. We both shared a laugh at that comment. She had a good sense of humour too. That’s the way I like it. I loved girls who could talk sense and be funny at times. Beauty with brains is a rare combination these days.
We talked about our interests, movies we liked, favourite actors and many more things. The conversation was getting so interesting that we had to order a second round of coffees. By this time Shruti and Sushant would have been busy discussing the life cycles and God knows what not about the project.
“Where are you guys. We are waiting for you. Lets start working Dammit“, Sushant messaged me. Riya also received a similar SMS from Shruti. I think they both planned and messaged us at the same time. Her expressions clearly said this. God save Sushant now !
“Waiting for the lift. Would be there in 5 minutes”, I replied. Being a total Delhite, I know how to make people wait for hours just by asking them to wait for more ‘5 minutes’.
“Your friend asking us to come back??? “she smiled. I nodded. By now she had started reading my mind also. I hate God for this. Why didn’t He give us guys this power to read minds.
“Yes, it was Sushant. I think they are waiting for us to start the work. Let’s go”, I replied.
I took out my wallet to pay the bill. Riya rebutted. She wanted to pay her share of the bill.
“I’ll pay my share of the bill”, she said strongly. ”It’s ok Riya, I’ll pay. Not a problem”, I replied. I thought girls liked guys who could pay their bills !
“No ways, we are going to divide the amount and in case you are that chivalrous, pay the entire bill next time we go to some other place”, she said smilingly . It took me 5 seconds to interpret the inherent meaning of this statement. She had indirectly asked me to take her out to some other place sometime soon. I took the hint and asked her if she was free the next day. But somehow she had a prior engagement.
Sushant and Shruti gave us stern looks as we entered the cabin. “Where were you Rahul, we have been waiting for you for more than an hour” said Sushant angrily. Shruti also nudged.
“We were downstairs and trust me; the CCD here has amazing coffee. I think you guys should go there sometime”, I winked at Sushant. By now i didn’t really care what Shruti would think of me or if she was Riya’s best friend. I wanted to fix Sushant and Shruti up so that they get involved in themselves and don’t disturb me and Riya. I so very much wanted these two characters out of my life.
We started working on the project. I was still not interested in it, but was just doing for the sake of impressing Riya. She was good at these project stuffs plus was an IITian and I didn’t want to portray myself as a jerk who couldn’t understand technology. This was the first time I was so deeply involved in any discussion with Sushant related to our project.
After today’s coffee meet, I think there were some genuine feelings for Riya brewing inside me. You may admire a girl’s curves on the first meeting, but the second meeting shows up new angles. I was so damn waiting for our second meet.
And yes, a lot can surely happen over coffee, at least love.




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