ROMANCE

We decided to meet at my place as my parents went out of town for two days and I was all alone at home, so I invited Payal for lunch at my place. But having strict Indian parents and living on different outskirts of Mumbai, it was difficult for her to make it up. Needless to say, Mumbai can separate people by distance but connect them by heart. So none of the reasons could stop the love birds to meet. She somehow managed to convince her parents to let her go out by making an excuse for group studies, the best excuse students make to convince their parents as parents generally give up just by the name of studies and that happened with her too. Poor parents!

I was eagerly waiting for her to come as this was the first time we were meeting other than the college campus. Yes, it was our first date after getting into the relationship, we can say!

Finally, the doorbell rang at 11 a.m. and so did my heartbeat! If there were any mechanism to hear the tinkle of my heartbeat, one could easily get my excitement. And here she was wearing kurta of my favorite white color and jeans with a cute little jumkhas which was giving it an elegant look. The icing on the cake was, she had worn the payal which I had specially brought for her and gifted her saying, "The best gift one can give to Payal is payal only." For a moment, I forgot that I was at the doorstep precluding her to come inside. I was so wonderstruck that I didn't even realize that I was gaping at her and she was too shy to ogle me openly so she peeked out at me shyly. As an effect, her cheeks turned red as if they also knew red goes very well with white.

"Stop staring at me like this and let me come in first. You have an entire day to do so." She winked at me, saying this she flirtily pushed me inside and entered.

She adjusted herself on the couch beside me hesitatingly. To make her feel comfortable, I started chit-chatting and cracking lame jokes. I started telling her about how notorious I was as a child and also told her all the nasty things I had done in my school and college days, just to make her laugh. Then she made delicious Sindhi style lunch for both of us. Rather than going on fancy dates or fascinating candlelight dinners, we preferred our first date to be simple and real.

We fed each other. We felt it like a simulation of how our lives will be together in the future. Food tastes better when someone else is feeding you, especially if that someone is the love of your life. Isn't it? After lunch, she sat again on that couch but this time I used her lap as a pillow and stretched out on that couch. She was astounded by this sudden gesture of mine but really liked it. She started playing with my hair and we continued our conversation. This time she started sharing about her childhood and how she had been raised up and pampered then, and how restricted she is now.

She also shared how passionate she is about photography. She asked me, "You will allow me to follow my passion in future, na?" I was shocked by this question out of the blue. But I liked the way she mentioned our future together. I promised her that I will always stand by her side no matter what. On that, she felt so happy that she bent down on my face and pecked me on the forehead. I could clearly see the love in her eyes. I felt like I am in a euphoric state. What else one expects from life other than this?

We both opened the diaries of our own lives and as if we were reading out all the pages from them to each other, we both shared about the life we had spent before we met. My bad habits, her past relationships, my past jobs, and everything. The day fell too short to share everything and here it was her time to leave. She felt the urge to stop the time like all the lovers feel when they are with their loved ones. She hugged me tightly as though she wanted to carry a part of me with her and I held her tightly and embraced her as if I wanted to contain her. I pecked her on the forehead, cheeks and all over the face and then we locked our lips! Yes, it was our first kiss!