Lights blazed beside tangible shadows , bitter mugs of coffee were drenched in syrupy sugar , our gazes were growing heavy with desire, and an overwhelming passion was welling up inside of me .

He leaned back in his chair in that hideously attractive way that was habit , blowing out swirls of smoke from a charred cigarette. Our gazes met for the slightest of moments and something stirred , some universal balance had just been upset, before we launched into conversation .

If you looked closely enough , there was a thread of something in him that day. Skeptical doubt and scornful wit were only a seemingly impregnable surface. A veiled nostalgic creature had just been woken; I could see it from the cloudy glimmer in his eyes. That incredulous smirk was a shield , nothing more. Maybe that’s why I felt entirely lost and consumed by the moment , the moment that sustained and held , before fluttering away with the wind , leaving me clasping at thin air .

” Quite the despondent one these days aren’t you ? If i didn’t know any better , i could have mistaken you for a cynic ” he scoffed.

” That’s a discriminatory assumption . To define is to limit. Nuff said ”

” Ah , where did you get that from ? ”

I self consciously grinned , eyelids instantly flickering downwards. ” Oscar Wilde … ? ”

” Should have known. That’s the problem with you literary girls. You’re all the same … ” he chuckled .

” And since when , may i ask , did you start viewing me like THAT ? ”

His eyebrows mischievously shot up at the suggestion of a debate.

” And what , dare I ask , makes you think I’ve started viewing you like that ? ” the grin was all but spilling from his lips.

Covering my face , i began to laugh nervously.

” God only knows why i put up with you … it’s BEYOND me”

” Pfffft , no need to pretend it’s so inexplicable. Charming. You think i’m charming ”



Around him , I was an utterly amusing disaster. Because I was gracelessly clumsy , timidly awkward and eccentrically intellectual , because my eyes glittered with life , because my hands trembled with crippling anxiety , because my lips broke out into vibrant, effervescent smiles , because with him, tenderness and ridicule went hand in hand ,because even the most intrinsic words of my reader’s vocabulary tossed themselves around before suddenly tumbling forth , because the most significant moments of existence left just as sporadically as they came …