What The Eyes Don't See

2 | The Girl and the Octopus

Anay stepped out of the men's room with a frown, cursing himself for working so hard. It was making him see things that he shouldn't. His slapped his cheek to bring himself back to alertness and blinked several times. The music was soon upon him, and this time it was Chumbawamba tub-thumping in all their raucous glory. The good thing was that it drove away all bizarre thoughts from his head.

He was making his way back to his booth in this particular frame of mind, which was when he saw her.

Her!

His feet stopped of their own volition. Only the broadest of smiles grew on his face. Forgetting everything about everything else, his steps turned in the direction of the girl he had spotted, and in four quick steps, he was at her table, overlooking her as she was engaged in deep conversation with a friend.

It took him just a moment to recall her name—in fact, he had never forgotten it—and then he called out, "Shanaya!"

The girl whirled in her seat. "Oh, my gosh! Is that you, Anay? Anay, really?"

She stood up at once, and he could not stop smiling. She still smelled of lavender talc like all those years ago. All of a sudden, nothing mattered. The music, the cacophony around them, the waiters running about, the friends that they had come with. Everything ceased to exist.

"It has been so many years! Fourteen years? Fifteen?" Anay said, calculating in his mind. "You have hardly changed!"

"But you have! You are a man now. Oh, that came out wrong. You know what I mean."

"I do!" He laughed. And then they both laughed again.

"Come, let's sit at that table for a while..." she proposed. As if by some kind of enchantment, there was suddenly an empty table at the far end of the busy pub.

"But your friend..."

"Gina won't mind. Just give me a minute and I'll join you."

Anay could not quell the thoughts in his mind. All these wonderful things happening in his life one after the other—getting the apartment, getting the deal, and now meeting the girl who he had his first crush on—if there was something like living the dream, this was it. Shanaya Gupta! He still remembered how besotted he had been with her in tenth grade. In class, she used to sit three rows ahead of him, looking just as lovely as she did now. Their paths crossed on several occasions. Both were brilliant at all three things that mattered in school—academics, art, and sport—and they were often teamed up in interschool competitions. Those spells were both exciting and torturous to the hormonal Anay. He was so close to her but didn't have the guts to speak out his heart. All he did was to fantasize about her not just in his bed at nights and during long reprieves in the bathroom, but also when he was with her. And then there was that one occasion—that one single occasion—when they kissed.

They had been visiting another school for the science exhibition. There were four of them, but all that mattered to him was that she was in the team. They had had a spectacular win and amidst all the rejoicing, when the teams were waiting for the school bus to arrive to take them home, Anay and Shanaya fell back. As they walked that long corridor of the host school, their fingers grazed each other. She looked at him. There was a peculiar expression on her face. He knew she was ready. His brain stopped functioning and instinct took over. He held her hand and she yielded. The next moment, he placed his lips on hers and gave vent to his passions.

It was their first kiss, but it did not seem like that to him, for he had played it out in his mind for months. If their friends had not come looking for them, goodness knows what else might have happened.