The Last Meeting

Disclaimer: This is my first work of fiction, any resemblance to anyone is purely coincidental.

This is my first visit to Hyderabad after I took up my new job in Bangalore. It’s been 6 months now, and my folks really wanted me here for the Dusshera festival. Dusshera is that time of the year, when all your relatives get together and have a good time.  I wasn’t in a mood for such a thing at all, after all I left the city for a reason.  My brother picked me up from the bus stop and we started driving home. He told me one of the main roads was closed due to some event and we had to take a roundabout route to get to our place. When my brother started driving towards one particular road,  I said to myself: “No, not this road”. I pulled the windows up immediately and tried not to look outside. Places oddly have memories attached to them and I didn’t want to recall these particular ones. My brother switched on the radio and it was blaring songs about love, heartache and memories. I was definitely not in a mood for those, I leaned over to switch off the radio. It seemed like someone up there was playing a joke on me.

So far, my return to Hyderabad has been greeted with all the things I wanted to avoid, but nothing could beat this one. My phone started ringing and when I looked at the number, my head started spinning. I thought for a bit to ignore it, but somehow I couldn’t. So I picked it up and here goes the conversation.

Me: Hello
Voice on the phone: Hi
Me: (Trying to stay cool) Wassup?
Voice on the phone(VoP): How are u?
Me: I’m good, how about you?
VoP: I’m ok.
Me: So what made you call me.
VoP: I’m moving to Mumbai.
Me: That’s cool! That’s where you always wanted to be.
VoP: I want to meet you once.
Me: But I’m in Bangalore.
VoP: I know you came to Hyderabad, Neha told me.
Me: (What a bitch, how could she tell her) But I don’t want to meet you (In my mind I know I wanted to meet her as well).
VoP: This may be the last time we will ever meet.
Me: Ok let’s meet at ‘our’ coffee day (we met at this coffee day 7 years ago) and only on the condition that we are not going to talk about what happened.
VoP: Ok 6 PM today?
Me: Fine see you there.

The entire day I was thinking hard about how to keep my cool and not get emotional when I see her in the evening.  As I was going through these debates in my head, my conscience started talking to me.

My Conscience(MC) : So, you are all set for the evening, how do you think you are gonna handle it.
Me: I think I will be fine, I will try avoiding any topics from the past and I should be good.
MC : What if she reminds you of something from the past?
Me: I will try to avoid that topic. I think I have that much control on myself to not get carried away.
MC: If she asks you to forget everything and start new.
Me: I don’t think she would say something like that.
MC: Then why does she want to meet you now.
Me: She is leaving and she said she wanted to meet me for the last time.
MC: Do you like the idea that she might want to say that.
Me: Now, where is this going, I don’t want to answer that.
MC: I’m your conscience and you can’t cheat me.
Me: I’m trying to be sane, and you gotta help me, than pester me.
MC: I’m what you are. I reflect what goes on in your mind.
Me: Forget it!

It was 6:10 PM by the time I reached there. She was already there and from what I know about her, she would have been there by 5:55 PM. Dressed in white, she was looking like an angel. She was seated at our favourite spot in that coffee shop. That particular table gave a sense of privacy as it was located a little distant from the rest.

As I was about to say hi and take my seat, she quipped at me saying “Some things don’t change do they? Your punctuality hasn’t for sure.” Punctuality had always been one of the constant themes in our arguments. She was very particular about it and I least cared about it. Every time I was late, I had to make it up to her with some thing. This time, I didn’t have to. I decided to irritate her a little bit and said “I somehow feel good this time for making you wait. Actually, I don’t feel guilty about it at all, such a relief.”

“Ok, now stop being so mean to me.”, she said clearly irritated by my response. And then it was her turn to retort “You are looking good, whats *wrong* with you?”

“Actually, I’ve read an article somewhere, apparently you look better if you have fewer mental tensions. In the last 6 months, seems like I didn’t have a lot of tensions”, I responded immediately feeling too good about my spontaneity. She didn’t particularly like it when she didn’t have an upper hand in the conversation in terms of retorts, so I know something much more stronger is coming at me.

Just then, the waiter came by the table to take the order. “I will get a latte, and a potli for the lady”, I said. She burst into laughter for a bit and said “No way!”. The waiter was confused as to what was going on, then I immediately corrected the order: “A latte and a hot chocolate”. ‘Potli’ is a samosa like snack available at that coffee shop and the last time she tried it, it upset her stomach very badly.

All of a sudden, we heard some noise in the coffee shop, and turned out to see there were a bunch of kids from the nearby coaching centre, probably just done with their class. She asked me, “Remember, when I took that class a few years ago, you came here everyday to pick me up.”

“Ofcourse, how can I forget that, I had to wake up every morning get ready and be here by 8:30 AM to pick you up. Even the watchmen and the sweepers on that road knew me back then”

“You tried your best to woo me back then, but once you took up your job in that company, everything changed”.

I sensed the conversation moving towards avenues I didn’t want to explore today, and I was looking for a way out. Just then the waiter came back with our drinks.

I used that as an opportunity, to quickly change the topic. “So, you are moving to Mumbai?”

“Yeah, moving next Monday”, she replied.

“Is all your move shopping done? Thank God! I didn’t have to come along this time”.

“Look who’s talking, you have always been impatient with my shopping”, she said as she took a sip of her hot chocolate.

“Come on! I’ve always been patient with your shopping”.

“You were nice only when you were doing it to make up for something. Talking about shopping, where’s your wallet?”. She was already reaching out for my wallet on the table. She took the wallet and tried hard to find something.

“I know what you are looking for, if it’s that photo, you aren’t gonna find it, I’ve removed it a few months ago”.

I could see the expression on her face turn to rage. There was silence for a few minutes. I acted as if I didn’t care. I sipped my coffee as if nothing has happened at all.

She broke the silence, “How could you do that?”, she asked me. When I looked at her, I only saw her glistened eyes. This was the one thing I feared the most about this meeting. I could never see her cry.  She continued, “What went wrong between us, why did things turn out that way. Just an year ago, we were happy.”

I didn’t know how to react, but I didn’t want to get emotional. In a very mellow tone, I tried to explain to her “Whatever happened between us, was destined to happen. We could deny and take the blame upon ourselves for what has happened, but we can’t change anything about it. I’ve moved on, and I expect you to as well. We shouldn’t meet again. The 7 years we spent together were the best part of my life. I have no regrets.”

“I’m sorry for everything”, she said trying to control her grief.

“Don’t be, both of us had a part to play in whatever has happened”.

The waiter left the check at our table. I thought it was a good sign to leave. “I should get going”, I said picking up my wallet.

She came around and gave me a tight hug, she had tears in her eyes. There was a lump in my throat, but I didn’t want to react at that point. Instead I just whispered into her ears, “You are not helping me, now all these girls in the coffee shop think that we are together, and that doesn’t help my chances”. She smiled and said “look at you”.

I watched her as she got onto her scooty. She turned around and I wished her good bye. I hoped time stayed still at that moment.

After she left, I drove straight to a secluded place near the lake. Tears were rolling off my eyes, the truth is that I would never see her again and I wasn’t ready for that.  The one wrong decision I took in my life cost me everything. I spent at least an hour there thinking about all the things I could have done, only to realize that it was too late already.

I pulled up the photo from my pocket and as I was trying to put it back into my wallet, a sudden gust of wind blew it out my hands  and within a moment it was gone.  Destiny!

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