Crazy Stupid Love - a short story

Crazy Stupid Love

Siddharth and I had been friends since college. We got into the same IT firm through college placement. We were inseparable till Ananya, with her angelic face and figure-to-die-for, walked into our lives.

I went to Jaipur for 5 days to attend a wedding and in those 5 days my friend had already fallen head over heels in love with this woman, presented her with gifts, dropped her home and even listened to her sob stories. Look at me, I know him since last 7 years other then few random birthday cards I never got anything from him.

As it turns out Ananya already had a boyfriend. This man can’t seem to make his mind about the girl. They break –up for a month and then they are back together for a couple of months to break up again. Every time this man breaks-up with Ananya… Ananya comes running back to Siddharth. Siddharth, being head over heels in love with her, accepts her with open arms. Like expected, when that boyfriend gets his periodical change of heart, the ever confused soul i.e... Ananya runs to her “true love”. That explains her figure: she gets to do so much of “running”.

Today is one of the days where Ananya is with the boyfriend, conveniently forgetting about Sid. Is that what Bird in hand and other in bush means?

Now that he doesn’t’ have to buy gifts for anyone or drop anyone home so he gets time to eat my brains off. Call it PMS or just plain simply irritated.. I am sure if he mentions Ananya one more time, I am going to scream, I am going to scream so loud that Arabian Sea- almost 15 km from our office- will have Tsunami and will sweep this man off. I don’t even like her. She is exactly the kind of female I have detested all my life, the damsel in distress that needs rescuing, the kind that can’t get enough of male attention.

Look at me and my sorry state; I can’t even get one man to love me. I’ll always be that woman whom you see in movies, who is a confidante a best friend but she can never have her own love story. She never is in the main frame, always on the side-lines. Yeah that’s where I am “Always on the side-lines”.

****

Siddharth and I were sitting in a cafeteria, he seemed lost and down and I knew why. I decided to sit quietly, giving him company.

Siddharth finally muttered “Ananya called.”

I looked up trying very hard to hide my irritation

Siddharth looked at me and then he continued “She said she loved me, because I was there with her when she needed a man most. That she knows I would love her unconditionally.”

I looked at him, I really wanted break this man’s head into pieces and search if there is a brain. Why can’t he get it, the moment the boyfriend would return she’ll go back to him? But I chose to keep my mouth shut. Trying to reason with him is like banging my head to the wall.
He said, “She has promised to leave her momentary -ex for good.”

I had enough of this nonsense. I stood up, slipping a Rs.. 50 note below my coffee cup. I looked at him and said “I am done; I can’t bear to listen to this crap anymore. I think you should say yes to her. You guys do have too many things in common.”

With that I left.

As I entered my work place everyone screamed “Congratulations”. I looked up with anger. I screamed “Wrong no. the person is yet to come.” Everybody looked confused.

“Didn’t Siddharth propose you?” My friend asked.

“Why would he propose me? He likes Ananya and she proposed. So yay, there is a happy ending finally. Now let me get back to work. I need to go home early”…. And cry, I thought to myself.
All of a sudden I could hear murmurs I peeked and I saw Siddharth entering and walking towards me. Before I could react he started talking,

“Did you know only 6 % women have really good sense of humour? I bet you did not know only 2% women can actually tolerate geeks? And that only 3-4 % women were actually beautiful inside out. You are a rare piece of work Pakshi, when Ananya pointed out why she loved me; it made me doubly sure why I loved you even more.” He said.

“So you love me because I have been a good friend to you?” I asked… feeling even more horrible now. I don’t want pity love. Nowhere in fairy tales did they mention prince charming would go for the damsel out of pity.

“No, I love you because you are my soul mate. I love you because I don’t even have to say and you already know what’s going on in my head and I love you because I am home when I am with you. I know I have been a big screw-up but I won’t mind spending my whole life making up to you.”

“So there would be no more Ananya between us??? Are you sure?? You did seem pretty much in love with her.” I asked… okay yes I already started dreaming of candle-lit dinners, doing cha-cha and samba with this geeky hunk (is that an oxymoron), my wedding.

“Yes, I promise” he said earnestly.

“Well…okay” I said blushing and there was a loud cheer. Everyone was eager to congratulate us. I finally became the heroine of my own story. Yay!

***

Somewhere in corner of that office, a man sadly looked around as if his life had come crashing down. Voice in his mind echoed non-stop “Pakshi always knew Sid was not interested in her. He liked someone else. So when did Pakshi and Siddharth became a couple?”

He still remembered the late night talks they had, devouring cups of coffee and talking endlessly about random things. She would often complain how Siddhartha was an idiot to go after that female.

Pakshi had mentioned once that she wanted to be the heroine of her story atleast once. It was then he decided he would propose Pakshi on Valentines day and will make the celebration doubly special. He had booked a jetty and ordered a diamond ring. He had loved her the moment Pakshi joined the firm but couldn’t gather enough courage to ask her out. Now he cannot even if he wanted to.

He sighed and made a mental note “I need to cancel the ring that I ordered as well as the jetty reservation.”