‘That’s love!’ Richa winked.
I walked to Omi with a strange sense of joy. Suddenly, Saahil and his wife didn’t matter . . . The life that I had imagined with him didn’t matter. All the jealousy had disappeared—so had the regret. The hunger of wanting to be called a ‘power couple’ no longer prevailed. Omi was my present. He not only knew my dreams but cherished and respected them; he knew what made me happy. I sat near him and his face lit up as he saw me smile.
‘What’s that?’ I asked, noticing a tag on the pocket of his shirt.
‘We were playing a game and the anchor asked us to choose a tag for our respective spouses. You had gone out so I pinned it on my pocket,’ he said, beaming from ear to ear.
My wife is my queen.
I tried to blink back the tears in my eyes. His smile, his innocence, his sincerity and even the tag said it all. He had always treated me like a precious gift. I mattered to him more than anything else. Yes, he acted weird; but sometimes even I did! He was not perfect, but neither was I. Our story had been a roller-coaster ride of joy and tears, love and fights, arguments and reconciliations—but as long as we were together, things would always be okay.
23
My Superhero Girlfriend
Writuraj Ghosh
People say that matches are made in heaven. And, in some cases, they are made somewhere close to heaven, around 32,000 feet above sea level. Imagine you are on a flight with the most beautiful girl you have ever met. You get to save that damsel in distress and become her hero. What if I tell you that it has happened with me? Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, this isn’t any superhero story, and neither am I your friendly-neighbourhood Spiderman. But this story is worth telling.
Last Sunday I was returning from my hometown after attending my cousin’s wedding. I had had so much fun in the past few days. Attending the wedding, catching up with school friends, enjoying the local street food and so much more! Thinking about the horrible traffic of Bengaluru, my blood-sucking boss and frequent power cuts waiting for me really made me upset. The only positive thing about returning to the city was that I was going to see Meera after two weeks. Meera and I have been dating for more than two years. After completing the security check, I grabbed a coffee for myself and took a seat in the waiting area.
I took out my phone and texted Meera. I am at the airport. See you in three hours.
Meera almost immediately replied: Waiting for you, baby. Which was followed by a couple of love emojis.
This lady always lifts up my mood. After texting for a while, I heard the boarding call. I boarded the flight and took my designated seat.
I am going on flight mode now. See you.
Have a safe journey. Don’t forget to call me as soon as you land.
I checked her message and put my phone on flight mode. Then I closed my eyes and tried to get some sleep. The dreadful thought that I’d have to deal with my boss and the work pressure from the next day made its way back to my mind. And to add some special effects to my thoughts, a baby started crying from the seat behind me. I wished I could’ve stayed back a few more days.
‘Excuse me.’ I heard a female voice. I opened my eyes. A very beautiful girl was standing next to my seat. And when I say ‘very beautiful’, I mean real, natural and pure beauty. She looked like an Instagram model. Just that, in this case, it was a real person rather than a photo that was taken with a 100-megapixel camera and then further beautified by applying filters.
‘Sorry to bother you, but may I take my seat, please?’ She was pointing to the seat beside mine.
‘Of course.’ I stood up. I was on the aisle seat. She had the middle one. She stepped across me and took her seat. Immediately I realized that she smelt beautiful too. The fragrance of her perfume refreshed my mind. I could feel a weird pain in my chest. The pain was weird because I liked it. And my heart was beating faster. I could feel it. I took my seat and, in the process, our shoulders touched. Both the pain and the heartbeat doubled. I thought of talking to her, maybe offer help with the seat belt. But on second thoughts, I realized it was best to stay quiet. She was way out of my league. I looked around. An old lady was sitting at the window seat beside her. She was busy looking out of the window. The plane started moving. We were ready for take-off.
‘Hi!’ She was looking at me with a smile. Now my heart was racing faster than the plane. ‘Sorry to bother you, but I am really scared of flying. Can we just talk for some time while the plane takes off?’
I didn’t know what to say. I was dumbstruck for a couple of seconds. Then I started stammering, ‘Ye . . . yes . . . yes . . . why not?’
‘Are you a frequent flier?’ she asked.
‘Not frequent, but yes, once in three months on average. What about you?’ Finally I was not stammering.
‘Very rarely. I am not much of a traveller. Maybe once or twice a year.’
The plane was moving very fast on the runway. Things were shaking, my heart was pounding and then the most unexpected thing happened. As soon as the plane took off, she tightly grabbed my hand, which was on the armrest between the two seats. I could feel a current flow through my body. My heart was going to burst. I looked at her. Her eyes were closed. Her lips were moving, probably whispering some prayer, and her other hand was holding the other armrest. I kept looking at her. There were clouds outside and we started experiencing mild turbulence. Now I could feel her nails piercing my skin. Her back was straight, her legs were stiff and her beautiful face looked scared. The turbulence finally stopped. But she was still scared. I don’t know what happened to me at that very moment. I put my other hand on top of hers, went really close to her and whispered into her ear, ‘Hey, don’t worry. Everything is going to be fine.’
I was really close to her. Her hair was falling on my face. She turned her face slowly towards me. Her eyes were still closed. Her lips were still moving. I could smell her strawberry lip gloss. Then she opened her eyes slowly. We kept looking at each other’s eyes for a few seconds. I was getting lost in hers.
I suddenly came back to my senses and patted her hand. She realized that she was gripping my hand. She immediately removed her hand. ‘I am so sorry. I don’t know how this happened.’
‘Relax! It’s okay. How are you feeling now?’ I asked while checking my hand. There were marks from her nails.
‘Oh my God! I am so sorry!’ Now she was looking apologetically at the marks.
‘It’s fine. Is this the first time you are flying alone?’ I asked, smiling.
‘Yes,’ she replied. ‘I shouldn’t have. It was a stupid idea. I am afraid of heights and . . .’ She was still looking at the nail marks on my hand.
‘Hey! Look at me,’ I interrupted. She looked up. ‘Relax. Shit happens.’
She was smiling now. Finally! God, she was beautiful!
‘Hope I haven’t hurt you badly,’ she asked.
‘Hurt me? You almost killed me. When you held my hand, I almost had a heart attack.’
‘Why?’ she asked, laughing.
‘You are so beautiful. Not even in my wildest dreams could I have imagined you holding my hand.’ And we were both laughing.
We chatted throughout the flight. Her name was Anushka. She was returning from an official trip. She lived in Bengaluru and was working for a software company. She had a boyfriend but they had broken up two months back. She loved cats and was a huge fan of Virat Kohli. I told her a lot about me. Somehow I did not tell her about Meera. I was falling for her. I did not want to lose her. We were approaching Bengaluru. I didn’t want the journey to end.