Turning the corner...

He knew it. He finally knew it. Actually, he knew it since some time but was only now able to accept it. He was in love. Head over heels type. Always the one to scoff @ the "madly-in-love" breed of society, his heart had now throttled him straight into their domain. At a breakneck speed too, mind you! 38 days (yes, he had counted) back was when his heart had fluttered for the 1st time on seeing her. Well, actually he needed to thank Deep for his "she's damn beautiful" comment @ the lounge back then which fired up his senses to the extreme level (yes, a thank you card was in the offing for Deep).

And ever since that night @ the lounge he was a confused wreck. He started noticing her as he had never done before. Her small mannerisms became the staple of his consciousness. That twirling of a curl of her hair was something which now besotted him. Those freckles on her nose suddenly seemed so alluring. Her endless chatter seemed a lilting rhapsody to his ever willing ear drums. He now found her eyelashes beautiful, her pout started seeming sexy to him and her jaw bone became a piece of art. Her touch sent shivers down his spine; her laughter seemed a cacophony of jingling bells and wind chimes. That rolling of the eyes, those slight nudges to his shoulder, the waves of her hair, that curve of her lips, he noticed everything now. Yes, he was truly besotted by her...and madly in love.

He had to tell her. He could not and would not wait any longer. He wanted to share his feelings, wanted to make her his confidante in this exuberant joy of his, wanted to acknowledge his coming to senses and more than anything wanted desperately to hold her in his arms. He had wasted too much time shrouding his feelings behind the dogmas of realism and pragmatism. Best friends they had been for so long, it was time to effuse a new relationship. It was time to lift the veil, and lift it he would. It was time to pour out his feelings and desires, and pour out he would. There would finally be no more pretensions, only the truth.

It was 9 in the evening and knowing her routine as well as he did, he knew her to be @ her home. Hurriedly, he moved out of his house not wanting to waste even a single moment now. His happiness was just round the corner and he did not want to be in this lane of solitude any more. He wanted to encounter the bend and turn into the new lane of happiness.

Bouquet and champagne in hand, he rung her bell and waited for destiny to embrace him. He pictured her face turning a shocked expression as he knelt down before her, the shock turning to unbridled joy and happiness as he rolled out his pronouncement and finally the moment of bliss that he had awaited. He was shaken out of his reverie with the door opening only to flutter off into another trance @ her glance.

"My God Nik!!! I was just about to call you. How come you are here?", she rattled off in one breath. His reply died down in his throat when she shrieked unknowingly on viewing the bouquet and champagne..."Oh my, how did you know? Did Deep tell you beforehand? Damn it and here i was thinking of breaking the news to you myself." His enhancing confusion started to graduate to despair @ full throttle when Deep came into view behind her. "Hi Nik, budz u r ryt on time for the celebration...v just became a pair." An icy feeling gripped his senses, a nausea rose from the depths of his despair. Someone had just gone and yanked out feeling from within him as he became numb, uncomfortably numb. As she ushered him inside she repeated herself "But how did you know then?" He chanced a look towards her and their eyes met. In that instant he saw her, a picture of unbridled joy and happiness, basking in her moment of bliss which he had so wanted to be the forbearer of and he just shrugged "I just, knew!!!"

She had turned her corner but the path did not lead to him. His bend was not into another lane; rather he had just retraced his steps back to solitude. His path had been a full circle.