Rebounds.

I looked at them, and they looked at me back. There they are Frying pan, Oil, eggs and what not. If you know what to do with them, you will get a dinner. But there I was, simply staring at them with a grim face. Sigh. My stomach grumbled stating its agitation. “Consider it as dieting, idiot”, I mumbled. Sigh again.

The phone rang waking up half the neighbours and pissing me off more.

“Heylo”, I answered.

“Hey”. It was him. Why does he want to call me in the night?

“Yeah?”

“Want to go for dinner? I couldn’t sleep. There would be some midnight restaurants”. Bless him.

My face lightened up. There are two reasons for that – Free dinner, and unlimited supply of cigarettes. He is one of the guys who smokes like a chimney and is not ashamed of it. It was inspiring for a closet smoker like me. He was very much in love with a woman, a true romantic. Weird people! I was an entity for him – a weird, Living, breathing, yapping entity who has a good knowledge in science and Hollywood films. It relaxed me too, and I was never ashamed of begging him for cigarettes.

He picked me up in the car after 20 minutes. I was still in my pyjamas. It was a good drive and we spoke about our lives, dreams, ex lovers, ambitions and films. The “midnight restaurant” was a 4 star hotel with buffet. Buffett. My tummy rejoiced. I sprinted to get a plate and ran around sampling all the food little by little. When there were no more food items left to be tasted, he signalled to take the seat next to him.

The conversation continued and I continued gobbling. The Biriyani is awesome.

“Do you know? A guy should be lucky to marry you”, he said smiling.

I rolled my eyes. Oh! Here comes the sarcasm. But, right now, I am hungry. I did not bother to raise my eyes to meet his. I am a hungry woman!

“If I had met you before meeting her, I would have loved you”, He continued.

I stopped chewing and looked up with mouthful of biriyani. This is serious. I faked a giggle as I didn’t know how to react.

We sat and ate the rest of the dinner in silence. My brain was churning the thoughts so loud that I feared he would be able to hear it. Why does he have to say that to me? Does he think that I am easy? Is he hitting on me? Does he think I am such a loser that I will fall for any man?  The thoughts were endless and it was not going anywhere. I shook my head in an attempt to clear my thoughts. I need a cigarette!

I stretched a little taller trying to find where the smoking room is.

“What happened?” He asked seeing that.

“Nah, feel like smoking”, I replied.

“...because of what I said?” he mocked.

“No, because of the biriyani”, I retorted.

“So what do you think?” He pushed the topic.

“What is there to think? You already HAVE a girl friend” I snubbed.

“Not any more”, He said under his breath.

“What happened?” I probed. This is interesting.

“Nothing. She called it off. Please, I don’t want to talk about it.”

“OK”, I stopped. May be some other time. I was a total sucker for a good gossip.

“Will you marry me?” He asked all of a sudden.

I grinned. “Maybe we should get a cigarette”.

He nodded and started his walk towards the car.  I followed him smiling.

Rebounds, Rebounds everywhere!