Sunday, November 28, 2010

When love hurts...


Merlin was little nervous. Few days back his boss assigned him a task, and he still was searching for the right contact person. Then he called Sonia, “hello dear, how are you? Did you have your lunch?” “Yes I had. What about you?” Sonia replied and asked. “Yes me too. Listen sweetheart, you once told me that Sandra’s boyfriend is into designing business. My boss has assigned me a task. I want to get our bank’s new website designed. So I was looking for a website designer,” Merlin told in hurry.

Merlin got Jason’s contact number from Sonia, and he fixed the meeting with Jason. Merlin asked Jason to meet in Japan international on 22nd November at 1 PM. Jason told Merlin that he will come alone as his partner is out of town.

On 22nd November, at sharp 1, Jason was waiting for Merlin outside Japan International. To keep his reputation as a government employee, Merlin arrived 15 minutes late. Jason got little upset but he flashed a fake business smile.

Soon they both entered Japan International, Merlin ordered coffee. Jason quickly opened his laptop, and started explaining Merlin about his company. Merlin also gave his specifications, and told what he expects in terms of design of the website and budget. Jason gave him the quotation. Merlin quickly said, “Brother, I need to first discuss all this with my boss, and I will get back to you. It is nice to meet you.” “Nice to meet you too and I promise you a user-friendly website. Talk to your boss, and let me know buddy.”

Jason was about to leave when Merlin said, “hey wait, the designs you showed just now, I wanted to take my girlfriend’s opinion on it. Can you wait?”

Jason agreed. After five minutes Jason saw Sandra coming with one girl. He almost exploded with anger, but he was on business meet, so he stayed calm. Merlin soon introduced him to Sonia. Sandra did not need introduction, but she could not see at him. She was upset since their break-up.

Suddenly waiter came with four ice-cream scoops. Merlin had ordered ice-cream. Jason had to sit, and eat ice-cream. While having ice-cream, Sandra did not speak a single word, but kept looking at Jason. She had tears in her eyes. Jason looked into her eyes too. But as soon as he finished his ice-cream, he got up and took Merlin’s leave. He smiled at Sonia and said bye.

He glanced at Sandra for one last time, picked up his laptop, and started walking towards road. Sandra was looking at his back posture, his hair. Soon he disappeared as he turned left. She sensed the smell of his perfume, which still lingered in the air. She was clueless about the future. In the midst of harshness of hurt, she felt the shadow of the huge banyan tree really soothing.

(This is a fiction short story)