Puppy Love

For the record, this is my first story that I am publishing on a blog. hint: I dont write stories in books , or any other media either :-) Hee hee. I have also figured the curios circumstances and factors which can influence a person to write a story. A foreign country, A hotel room, Not a friendly soul in many miles and.. Beer!. fascinating indeed... the usual disclaimer: the story is totally fictitious and bears no resemblance to any person living or dead.

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Have you ever felt like a Traveling salesman without actually being one ? Thats what i have felt about my self, May be it was the job or the way i lived my life. I seem to be making many casual acquaintances but no real friends, I seem to be wandering like a gypsy though i owned a couple of houses. It was the unrest where no place felt like home.

The airport terminals where I spent a lot of my time these days where my second home , after a while the people start to look all the same everywhere. Strange but comely in a way.

She was a proud beauty with many suitors. I never realized that there was such a long list when I was queuing up, I tried to be a good friend though, Often I would tail her like a silly excited puppy and get cheered with even the small attention that came my way. She found me "cute" and "nice" in her own words. Finally as it turned it was an outsider who got the precious job - some swanky guy working in a foreign country and making really good money and of course a great talker. Girls love good talkers. Needless to say it broke my heart big time. I changed jobs and cities to get away from it all , slowly I got over it and realised it was just infatuation. Its been many years since this happened.

So why do I bring this up now ? Incidentally I was going to the city she lived in on some work. I was chatting up to my good friend before my travel and he broke the news about her. Her husband got killed in a freak accident. Holy freak accidents....you can never plan for them , sounded awful.Life was so harsh and she was so pretty I thought. it was more than a year already since that happened. She was working and bringing up her 4 year old daughter on her own. I got her number , my well networked friend dug into another mutual friend to get the number.

I called her after reaching my hotel room. I was waiting in anticipation on how her voice would sound after so many years, but no one answered the phone even after several rings. It was going to her voice mail. I decided not to leave a voice mail I usually hate voice mails, they are very impersonal. my work day was busy but dull. The business it looked like was going to be a long haul job and this was just ice breaker stuff that I was doing now. So i returned early to the hotel room and killed time, I tried calling her again , she was not there, I left a voice mail which started like "Hi I am wondering if you remember me..." and concluded by leaving my number. There was no response to my message . I spent some time catching with other old friends from my work place and sampling the local pubs. I was glad it was a short trip and for some reason I was more gladder going home this time.

She called me the day i was leaving, she had been away traveling. Her voice was still the same but her accent sounded more foreign. She sounded cheerful. I told her I was catching an evening flight back home. She said we could meet for lunch and so we did. I tried guessing how she would look like while I was waiting for her. When she came by, I realized she looked nearly the same and as pretty as ever. Her face looked fuller and rounder,in fact i instantly liked those full cheeks , those eyes had lost a bit of the old shine, though only a small testimony to the years gone by, may be it was the glimpse of a few dark circles below her eyes. Her curvy dimpled chin and her straight dark hair were still the same.

"I hope you are fine after all that has happened ? " I said, actually I am not really good at expressing sympathies and all that kind of stuff,anyway since it was a year now I left it at that. "Yeah , I am doing great" I could see her strength in her eyes. We chatted upon so many other things. When you have been away for a long time , you become strangers ; It is like becoming friends allover again. Strangely I started talking as if i had downed a few beers. I was whining about my job , and life and speaking nostalgically about the good old times. She listened. In the past she would cut me short and dish out immediate remedial advice on what I should do. But now she just listened and said she understood. She told a few stories of her own. I asked her if she missed home and if she was coming back. She said she did but the nice thing was she had a some good friends here, and her mom kept her company for few months in a year. her sister lived in a close by city. Apparently she said her sister has been trying to fix her up with somebody. "Oh that is good" I said trying to sound very honest. There was a momentary silence after that.

We started talking about our mutual friends back home and I was telling her who was where and who was doing what. She said "I have been out of touch for too long". "I wont have many people i know if i come back". she said with a smile. "Hey i can look you up regularly" I said with a bit of eagerness ,"Thats so sweet of you , I will remember that" she said. That was such a girlie answer, I thought. But her laughter that followed was the sweetest sound I had heard in a very long time.

Soon enough, it was time to catch my flight. and she dropped me off at the airport. When it was time to say good bye and when our eyes met , mine somehow got big and welled up a little with water without my own knowing.I was going to close this fast to avoid embarrassment. "It was good to see you after such a long time, take care" I said "Yeah it was great to see you too, you haven't changed too much"

As I was about to go away she said "Have a safe trip home and take care of yourself !" as she said this she came closer with her hand held out and close enough to smell the familiar wonderful smelling perfume that she was wearing, either that was a strong perfume or she was quite close! her eyes were suddenly brighter and genuinely warm. As I was shaking hands my Super Spider sense was calculating if She was close enough for a hug and concluded negative. In the split second I did think about the possibility of what would happen if i tried to hug her... and then I heard the sound of a jaw breaking slap from somewhere - my dream cloud sure vanished in a hurry !

As I walked inside I waved to her and she waved back. Once I was back in my familiar airport terminal lounge and started waiting for my flight,my mind did a recap. I was feeling glad for looking her up, too bad that I dint take a few pictures with my camera .I wasn't sure when I was going to see her again. Part of me wanted to grab my mobile and call her immediately from the airport and thank her for something...then I thought I would be sounding so foolish doing that. I let that impulse pass.

Her thoughts faded off quickly once I was back home and I got busy with my life again.The months that passed since have been calm. For some reason I was feeling more at peace now, the placed where I lived has started feeling more like home.

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I got a mail from Neetu today that she was coming back home for good. She had found a job in a branch of her own company which was setting up shop here. It was a tough call to make but she was happy to come back.

I almost did my mad puppy dog routine then and there in my office ,and had to calm my excited nerves by grabbing some strong coffee. After Saner sense prevailed , I started to think about the long queue this time around that I was going to join up !. at least I was better prepared for it this time around.