An Untold Story

“I can’t say the words you might be expecting” said the woman whose eyes got wet by bliss but the face got shrunk by fear.

“It’s okay. It is never my intention to force you to respond to my,” replied the man with a half-smile of pride and a half-smile of hope. “No matter what the answer I get, the feelings of mine towards you will be the same. I just didn’t want to regret in my life for not letting you know about the truth”. He continued.

A few months back, she came to town to join a new job in the same institute where he works. Being more qualified than him, she got her own personal workspace with an air-conditioned cabin, perfectly designed furniture, and three tables surrounding all around allowing her to take a sweet little nap resting on them whenever she needs. Yet she felt a little void that no comfort provided by the institute can fulfil. More space doesn’t mean more happiness. It’s the people who surround us who make the ambience more beautiful.

“I’ve seen you the other day occupying the cabin next to the staircase. I hope you are also a part of this institute from now.” said the man sat next to her in the cafeteria accidentally.

“Yeah. I just moved to town two days back. I got my offer letter the week before.”

“I see. By the way, are you aware of the formal proceedings to be carried out to enrol in the employ list and making a salary account etc..”

“No, I’m new to this job, in fact, I never worked anywhere. This is my first experience of having people around me who aren’t my friends.

“Oh, I see. What were you doing before this” he asked. (who just completed his post-graduation and had no idea of her qualification)

“I’ve finished my PhD three months back” she responded casually.

“Oh great. I’ve been working here for the last year after my masters. In  case you need any help here, feel free to ask.”

“Sure. I’ll. In fact, I was about to ask the manager about the formalities just before you volunteered.”

“Oh, I see. It’s fine either way. His cabin is the one next to the pillar in front of the coffee maker.”

“Thank you, I’ll enquire.”

“Fine, I’ll get back to work. See you later.”

“Okay. Bye.”       

         ____________________________________________________

“Wow... This cabin is so nice... we never got to spend more than half an hour here that too for some meetings or conferences.” He said after one month of knowing each other.

“Ha, they made it personalized on my request”

That’s how it started. Being one of the employs from the same wing of the same floor, he used to get a lot of free time to accompany her.

Having merely no close friends in college because of her busy research schedule, she used to like the company of his. Things shifted from that cabin to his cabin where his colleagues and friends became hers too. Everyone started liking her innocence and hospitality. All of them used to share food from their homes during office lunch breaks, hang out in restaurants and shop together.

Things started getting little more interesting after the heavy floods in the town in that season. There was an electricity blackout for 4 consecutive days. Scarcity of food was wandering in the streets. The communication network was devastated. She, being sensitive to food and a resident of a PG without food facilities, found difficult to survive. On the second day of the home quarantine, Out of nowhere, the reception called her and informed that someone had left her a package. She went surprised to see who in the busy town had time to send a parcel during that disaster. Opening the parcel in polythene bag containing a tiny sealed bowl with reddish-black edible oil running all around it and a little bigger box having heavy moisture on its lid, she saw a note written “ I couldn’t contact you because of the network issue. Hope this would help you.” She knew whose handwriting was that. She also realized that it was her favourite dish by the smell of it and returned to her room with a smile on her lips which lasted until she finished the meal. And there were many such things happened in quick time from either side.

The day came where they both met in a coffee shop. One of them knew exactly what to say and how to respond to the answer and the other didn’t, yet both were nonchalant in the beginning. Sometime passed over trivial stuff. Both of them started sensing the heat of the situation. He, being the one who started liking her in the first place and knowing that the things wouldn’t work raised the topic as he planned to and She, being much elder to him was sceptical to accept if he confesses but was in no place to reject, was also ready to hear his words as she expected.

He told what he had to. He knew the answer and was already prepared for the worst. Unlike him, she didn’t think of it through how to respond to that. She knew what she wants to hear, she knew what she feels about it, but she didn’t know what to say.

“I can’t say the words you might be expecting,” said she with multiple emotions wandering in her head. Neither she could lose him over the stupid aspect of age, nor could she proceed ahead over the same stupid aspect. In either case, she was never in a position to lose the unconditional attention, admiration and love of his.

“It’s okay, I’m not even sure of what answer I want from you. It’s just that I didn’t want to hide it forever and feel guilty later. I hope you won’t take it too personally”.

Waiter came. Check passed. Payment shared in between equally.

Though the conversation ended there with no closure, both were comfortable when they met face to face in the workplace and when they share food from others on the same table. Both were moving on fine (at least from outside).

Since then, he always wished that he wouldn’t have brought that conversation up in the first place and she always wished that he would have heard the sound of the inaudible waves of YES, generated in the tears of her eyes, plunging onto the coffee table.