ONE
It has been a month since Allie met Josh. Other than his goofy behaviour, she liked hanging around with him. It was like a habit. He was like what most of the not-so-groomed-guys would be. He always looked like he came out from the middle of his sleep in his pyjamas.
Anyway, something bothered her. She could not help herself but notice his sweet behaviour and she had to draw a line to be clear. Not that he ever said or indicated anything romantic, it was better to be on the safe side and make everything clear. She had enough trouble in the past due to the same reason.
She cleared her mind of all thoughts and called him. A soft yet witty voice answered the call. Josh said, “So, what command do you have for me?” Allie could imagine Josh smiling over the phone.
“I have a question, are you free right now?”
“Yes, I am, say?”
She cleared her throat and asked bluntly,” What are we, Josh?”
“Humans”
She frowned. He said further,” Was I supposed to say something else or am I misunderstanding you as a human?”
“Never mind. My bad, I should have known that you are never serious about anything. If it helps, I got my answer.”
She ended the call before he could say anything further. However, she was not happy with the response either. She waited that he might call. Soon she received a text.
I am not sure about my untimely sense of humour, but I am sure about us. I was willing to talk to you about it but was not very sure how you would respond. As of the question you asked, I was and will be serious about it.
She smiled realising that was the response she expected all along. She called him up.
“So, that’s what you think?”
" Yes”, she could feel his nervousness and enjoyed it.
“What if I deny?”
" I am alright with that too.” Allie chuckled, he sucked at lying and that was good to know.
" Look, I am very practical and if I don’t feel comfortable or not working, I leave you.”
“So, it’s a yes?” Josh grinned.
“Yes”, she spoke in a low voice. " Okay....” There was this silence, which was filled with excitement. “Do you want to meet me again?” Allie broke the silence.
“Yes”, she could sense his huge smile.
-----------------------------
It was late at night when she returned to her apartment.
“Hello”
“Hey Yasmine, it’s Allie. Can we talk right now?”
“Yes sure, what’s up?”
“So, today I went to see Josh…”
“Oooo….this will be exciting....”
“No, we did not do anything. God! put your mind out of gutter.”
“okay, I won’t interrupt , so what happened? Did he say something?”
Yasmine has been my friend since high school. She knew every detail of my past relationships and is my go-to person for any relationship crisis, problem and juicy gossip.
“Well, he is great...”
“At?” I knew she was grinning at the end of the call
“in general. Do that one more time, and I will not share anything.”
She agreed and I continued
“It’s just that when he was talking about his job, his family and friends, I felt it was moving too fast. I mean it has been a month, he used to talk about it before and somehow, I feel that maybe it is too fast. I am not yet comfortable with sharing anything with him.”
“You have to trust him. You are reluctant to trust him because of your previous crappy partner. Look, it has been a year, you must move on. Do you feel good about him?”
“Well, as I was saying he is a great guy, he never forces anything on me, little goofy but cares about comfort. So far, I do not see any reason to not trust him. I do not want to leave him because of my trust issues, I want to trust him, but it is like I am forcing myself to do that. It is not organic like the previous time. “
Yasmine sighed. “I get you. I have known you long enough and I know why you are still reluctant to move on. I would not force you to do that. I just want you to think and understand. You need to rationalize your fears and understand them. If this continues, you will never get over him. You need to understand that not talking or ignoring his calls does not mean you are over him. You need to work on yourself until the ghost stops haunting you.”
“Ghost? I remember that when we had that pep talk after six months of my breakup.”
“Don’t you think it is? He is no longer in your life and yet you are so cautious about everyone you meet. It is like you are trying to find similarity between him and Josh. They are different people. Josh might be an i***t, but he is not him. Anyway, I will not press it any more, this is something you need to realize.”
“Hmm…. I agree”
“So, anything saucy?”
“I was too occupied by fears to do anything saucy, maybe next time we will”. We talked for about an hour to realize we have to work the next day. “Don’t stress out. It will be just fine."
