He felt a surge of emotion, as if magnetically attracted to the lady who was standing a few feet from him, pouring herself some coffee, a generous topping of superfine sugar seemingly apt for her, in his eyes. He diverted his gaze quickly, aware that he was staring, and with one last fleeting glance from the most corner recess of his left eye, he left, accompanied by his cup of hot lemon and honey flavoured green tea, resisting the urge to look back at her. He would talk to her later, and, did she look fantastic, her figure gravitating in front of his eyes as he went up the escalator towards his office space in a slow monotone, as if gliding upon a conveyor belt destined to the stairway that led to paradise, a place filled with women like her. He shook his head, distracting himself through the cheerfully made interiors of his office building.
When Sins was thirteen years old and quite aware about the feelings and wonders of human flesh, he happened to discover the joys of the internet, experimenting with all sorts of keywords on Google’s search box, staring at the results page in quite wonder, even more so at the images page, which translated his searches literally. Often, he would find himself, in the dead of night, navigating the darkness of his living room through memory in order to switch his system on. This habit lasted for a few months, till one day his mother walked in on him suddenly from behind, to find him on an obscure site that sold sex toys, leading him to be scolded and encouraged to concentrate on his academics more. Sins didn’t use his system in the night for the next five months, stuck to playing Age of Empires and Grand Theft Auto during his days, post school hours.
Sins went for his first date when he was fifteen years old. He had known her for the past four years, and found her pretty cool. She played sports and participated in dramas, and spent the first fifteen minutes of their date, at a medium-sized cafe serving coffee and sandwiches, telling him about how she planned to become their country’s most famous cross-fit model. Sins was in awe, and admired her ambition, the fact that she had the confidence to declare her goals concretely, and he, himself was as clueless as a chicken.
Backing himself, he declared he was going to become a great footballer, to which, she had no words, only a bright smile, which nearly brought Sins on the verge of tears, tears of happiness. “I’ll help you”, she had said, touching his hand gently and leaving it there, till the waiter came about, to clear the garlic bread from their table. Three months later, her parents took her to another city, and Sins never heard from Sasha again. Much to his consternation, she wasn’t accepting his Facebook friend request, dampening his spirits a little, cursing his fate, his looks, his everything, before nonchalantly convincing himself that somehow, she must have forgotten about him. After all, she had many admirers. It hurt, but only a little. He wasn’t as moved, as the movies portrayed it to be so, and he had no intention of going to the extent of roaming an entire city to find her and somehow, miraculously, end up wherever she would be hanging out. Sins moved on, by now his sixteen year old self was in high school.
On the second day of high school, he ended up in a brawl, over a disallowed goal that he had scored with utmost skill, only to be ruled out for a foul that had occurred during the build-up. His sense of injustice, compounded by the searing sun that bore down mercilessly and the opposing players who began mocking the wasted effort, tapered into a red haze of light in front of his eyes. Pausing for a second, his eyes fixed on the gloating, amusing, joker-like face of the rival who stood in front of him in glee, he took two steps back, and kicked him in his crotch with all the might he could muster. The boy’s screams of agony reverberated across the whole playground. Like an organized mob, all the opposing members began closing up on him like hyenas on a lone deer. Much to Sins’ relief, his own team members sensed blood as well, resulting in a full scale high school riot that lasted exactly twelve minutes and two weeks of suspension.
Reaching his desk, he decided to pack up once he had finished his green tea. He had to attend an event, hosted by one of their clients, a small dinner for a few customers, at a location who’s unique selling proposition was that the dinner table would be hoisted up gradually via a crane to reach one hundred and sixty feet in height, a bewitching view indeed, a place really romantic in his eyes. Immediately, as soon as he arrived, he saw her, enchanted, a flood of school memories rushed through his mind, with Sins scarcely believing it was indeed her, and he was right. She looked remarkably similar, but was definitely not her.
He asked her out, and she agreed to call him next day. Sins would wait, confident. After all, life gave you so many chances, that it was hard to count. He just had to make sure, his eyes and ears remained open, in order to spot the opportune moment.
Marijuana Maharaj 