Getting up at 6.30 in the morning is not something that Michael is used to. But today is a special day, his first day in office. Michael doesn't even remember when was the last time he woke up before 8.30 in the morning. It reminded him of the first day in his alma mater. He leisurely brushed his teeth, sniffed some tea and read the headlines in the newspaper. Then he realized that he had to press his clothes.
By the time he dressed himself up, he thought he was getting late. So, he had no time to even have breakfast. He scurried to the office and reached at almost 8.30.
He went to the reception and said 'Hi, Good morning! I am Michael. I am here to join Broadwiz. I have my offer letter with me'.
He was asked to wait for a few minutes. He had to wait for twenty long minutes, wherein he went through the company's notice board. The graphs showing the Broadwiz company's performances in the last 5 years were hanging on the board, which he never understood.
A fat fair young girl came to greet him. She said: 'Hi, am Rebecca. Nice to meet you. Welcome to Broadwiz. I will be helping you with your joining formalities'.
'Thank you, Rebecca', Michael said.
She took him in a small room on the 8th floor, where he completed the formalities of filling up the forms, taking all the paroles', the worst job of the day. It was almost the lunch time when he finished with the forms.
Rebecca showed him the cafeteria, where he had his lunch and later, after a smoke, went back to Rebecca's cabin. Rebecca then took him to the floor where his seat was allotted, where he would to spend most of his time in the coming days.
He followed Rebecca to the fifth floor, to one of the many empty cubicles.
'Hi, everyone', said Rebecca to one of the teams.
'Hi, Rebecca', was the response.
'This is Michael, he would be joining the team as an Associate software engineer. And Michael, this is Sara', pointing at the girl who would be sharing her cubicle with him from now, Rebecca continued, 'She will explain you the project that you would be working on.
'Hi Sara, glad to meet you', Michael said with a smile.
Sara smiled back acknowledging him.
Sara was a kind of girl, whom any guy would want to be with. She was fair, beautiful, and looked inaccessible, at least for a guy like Michael. Rebecca then introduced him to the other three people in the team, there was burly Jason, beautiful Scarlett and the team lead Daivd, who was rotund and alopecian. Rebecca then left the place.
It was a very large floor with a space for at least 200 people to work there at a time. There were around 20 teams working together on a project on the same floor.
The team mates came to Michael, asked him about his background and other things, trying to make him feel friendly. Michael was attracted to Sara on the first day itself, but he knew that it was something impossible.
Michael and Sara started working together from the next day. They talked not only about the project, but also about each others personal life.
As days went by, Michael and Sara became very close friends and shared about almost everything in their life. They ate together, went to the library together, drank coffee together and left the office together. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months. Michael started liking Sara more and more each day.
One evening, Michael was strolling through the streets, thinking about Sara. Fantasizing about him and Sara together. He stopped in the middle of the street, when he suddenly saw her, crossing the road.
She walked towards him, surprised to see him, said 'Hi Michael. what are you doing here?'.
'Just trying to kill time. What are you doing here?'.
'I went to see my sister. I need to catch a bus from the next street'.
'Do you have time for a coffee?', Michael asked.
She saw the time and said 'of course, I do', with a smile.
They walked through the meadows to reach the coffee shop. Michael decided to tell Sara how he felt about her. Whatever the result be, he had to take this step. He thought he can't live like this, thinking about her all the time. He knew she's a very beautiful girl, but he did not know whether he even deserved to be with her or not. But today he had to take the chance.
They were sitting in the coffee shop sipping coffee.
Michael said 'Sara', looking in her eyes.
'Yes Michael'.
He paused for a moment and thought 'this is the time'.
He suddenly asked, 'How did you like the coffee?', then cursed himself. 'What am I doing?' he thought.
'I love the coffee here Michael', she said.
He had a feeling in his mind that Sara knew how much he liked her. She was just waiting for him to tell her.
Then he thought that he would tell her after they left the coffee shop. They sat there for about half an hour. It was almost 8.30 when they left the place. They both then walked to the place where Sara had to catch her bus.
They walked through the meadows, next to a lake. It was cold. It was the best time for him to express his feelings to Sara. But he could not. He then thought that he would tell her at the bus stop.
Finally, they reached the place. He thought of telling her now, but when he looked in her eyes, he just could not say it.
He felt that she knew what he wanted to say. She was expecting him to say it. Ten minutes later, her bus, bus number 22 arrived. But Sara did not get into the bus. Another 22 number bus came after some time.
Sara left that bus too.
There was complete silence for a long time. He felt as if time had stopped. He too didn't want Sara to leave.
Sara asked 'Is there anything Michael that you want to tell me?'
'No! Sara'. damn it.
How could he not say? How badly he wanted to tell her, and why was he scared?
He saw another bus coming towards them, and this time Sara checked the time and said, 'Michael, I have to take this bus. See you in the office on Monday'.
He stood there nodding his head.
'Good night Michael', she said.
'Good night Sara'.
He watched her get into the bus. She sat next to a window. He watched the bus until it disappeared. Sara did not take her eyes off him as long as she could.
I am such a failure, he thought.
He started walking towards his place. He then thought of calling Sara. May be he could tell her on the phone, he thought. He was thinking how to tell her. After some time, He took his phone out of his pocket, and dialed Sara's number, and as he was about to press the call button, the phone rang.
'Hello'.
'Hello, Michael?', it was a voice of a girl.
'Yes'.
'Hi Michael, this is Kate. We met some days back at the carnival, remember ? We were on the same bus. And you asked me to call you'.
It reminded him of the day he went to a carnival with his friends, a few days before he joined Broadwiz, before he met Sara.
His friend called him on that day at 10.30 in the morning and said 'Where the hell are you? I told you to be here at sharp 10.15. The bus is about to leave'.
'Am almost there. Don't worry, I will make it before the bus leaves' he said.
'To hell with you'.
He got into the bus just before the bus started. He went and sat next to his friend. He then saw a girl, who was sitting in the front row. She was beautiful, Michael was kind of attracted to her in the first sight. She was wearing a light yellow tunic. He thought she's the one for him. As soon as they reached the place, she disappeared in the crowd. There were hundreds of people at that place.
Michael searched for her everywhere but he couldn't find her. He even tried to find her at the restaurant in the afternoon while they were having lunch. But he couldn't. He then gave up and enjoyed himself with his friends.
It was almost 6 pm when they left the carnival and went to the place where they had to catch the bus. She was standing there, waiting for the bus.
They got into the bus, and Michael decided that he will go and talk to her once they get down the bus. It was almost 7 when they reached their place. It was quiet dark. They got down the bus, and they were hardly twenty yards away from the bus, when Michael went and approached her.
He went to her and said: 'Hi, am Michael. I was in the same bus as you were in.', scratching his head in the back, he continued, 'I was wondering if you could spare some time for a coffee tomorrow.
Can I have your cell please?', not waiting for the girl to reply, he took the phone from her hand and said, 'Don't worry, I will not take your number, trust me.'
The girl was perplexed, as she had no idea who he was and what he was upto.
He pressed some numbers in her phone with his stubby fingers, saved it as 'Michael' and said, 'This is my number. If you think you can spend some time for a coffee with me, please give me a call.
I will understand if I don't get a call. In that case, I am sorry for wasting your time'.
She grabbed the phone as if he were a pilferer.
'But I hope to get a call from you', he said moving away from her, scratching his head in the back.
'Hello Michael, you still there ?'
'umm... yes, hi Kate', replied Michael.
'I was wondering if we can meet up for a cup of coffee tomorrow', she said.
'ah.. yeah, sure'.
'7 PM, tomorrow, coffee lounge ?'
'7 PM it is..', said Michael.
Michael and Kate met at 7 on Saturday.They spent around 2 hours together. They shared about each other. Michael told about how he was attracted to her at the first sight. He also told her about Sara. He told her how much he loved Sara.
Kate liked Michael as a person. When they were about to leave, Kate kissed Michael on his cheek, and said 'I wish I had called you on the same day'.
Michael went to his home, but he could not sleep. He thought about Sara the whole night. He thought of telling Sara the next day itself how he felt about her.
Michael got up early on Monday, and got ready for the office. He wore his favorite shirt. He reached office at 9, but saw that Sara had still not come. He saw a letter on his desk, on which "To, Michael" was written. He opened the letter and saw that it was from Sara.
It read, 'Michael, a few days ago, my neighbor, Paul proposed me for marriage. I did not accept his proposal as I was in love with you. I could never tell you this. I thought you felt the same about me. I thought of telling you last Friday when we were having coffee together. But I could not. Then I saw you with a girl in the coffee lounge on Saturday. I was broken. I don't have the strength to meet you Michael. I will have left the city by the time you read this letter. I am marrying Paul. All the best to you Michael. Take care'.
