Samy's POV

"What did I do? I could have ended this thing and gone back to working on my career, instead I agreed to meet with him on Friday. What is wrong with me? He  gave me a chance to end it, but I pulled back, gave him hope, and now we are to meet again. I know he is totally wrong for me, but some part of me is pushing me towards him. I can feel that small sweet sensation deep in my heart. I better end it before it becomes a monster. I will end it this time, when I meet with him on Friday." I thought finishing dinner and moving towards my bed. I told my parents I will let them know my decision on Friday.

Initially I was confused and conflicted with my own actions. I did not plan for the meeting to go the way it did. His explanations for his pervy behavior seemed bizarre, yet I was ready to accept them and ignore his previous misbehavior.

That night, I couldn't sleep. I tossed, turned and rolled on the bed, torturing the pillows in many positions. I went over our conversation again and again. I realized, I noted many things about him during our conversation. Little things, like the way he rubs his chin slowly with his index finger, when he is deep in thought or the way he bites his lower lip when he is listening intently. I could watch him for hours without getting bored.

I buried my head into the pillow to stop thinking about him, but realized I was incapable of handling the feelings, his thoughts generate. Sometime later I fell asleep, but dreamed about him. Not sure, how many times I kissed the pillow, it certainly had weird marks on it. It was my very first night of sweet ..  sweet torture, which continued on for a long time.

Next day, I showed up for work reluctantly. It never happened before. It was as if someone punctured my mojo balloon, I lost interest in work. My brain was thinking overtime about the coming encounter with him. I just wanted to lay in bed and wait for Friday, but I had two days of drudgery ahead of me.

"Hey, are you alive?" Priti asked tapping my office door. She was a friend and QA manager in the same office.

"Sorry !! Was lost for a second there." I answered recovering and signaled her to take a seat.

"Come, lets go for coffee, will keep you alive." Priti invited me.

I got up and followed her to the coffee shop, opposite our office building. We talked about the usual stuff - office gossip and politics. She tried to get details about the issue bothering me, but I decided to keep him a secret for now, so did my best to ignore her questions with evasive answers.

Finally it was time to go home and I was happy to go and retire to my den. Another twenty four hours to pass before i had to meet him. Again he was all over me in my dreams.

Next day, I wore my best dress to office as I was meeting him after work. What started as a small slow flutter in my heart, became louder and louder, as time went on, drowning everything. I was actually thinking of saying yes to him, biggest decision of my life. If he agrees, I will be spending rest of my life with him. I closed my eyes and let reality sink in.

Rejecting earlier alliances was easy, but I never realized saying yes to your future, was that hard.

Was I scared? - yes.

Finally it was five pm. I closed my email and shutdown my computer. Not that it mattered in anyway as my productivity for the entire day was close to zero. I went to the ladies room and quickly applied makeup and after one final look at myself in the mirror, headed out to city mall Starbucks.

As I got closer to the destination, negative thoughts scared the hell out of me.

"What if he doesn't show up? Maybe I said too much and scared him? I could be a real pain and why would anyone want to spend their life with me?"

My heartbeat started peaking. I stood in front of the shop and looked at my image in the huge glass door -  there was a confident looking young lady staring at me and  anyone looking at me, would think the same. But I knew, inside I was all jelly.

I entered the shop slowly and looked around. No sign of him. My heart sank and my hand went to my chest as I felt sudden congestion in my heart.

"Huh! You scared the hell out him, accusing him of being a pervert. Why the hell would he ever want to meet you again?" My inner voice screamed at me. I decided to look again closely, not willing to agree with my inner voice.

It was then I noticed him, his head buried behind a laptop, eyes glued to the screen and fingers tapping the keyboard furiously. Suddenly I was angry that he was busy with his work instead of watching the door eagerly for me.

I approached him and tapped his table lightly.

"Oh! ...  Hi!! ... please .. please take a seat." Sid got up and pulled the chair out for me.

"Thanks .. I thought you forgot about our appointment. If you are busy, I can come some other time."

"Oh no! Please .. I was waiting for you .. actually I started on this code to kill time and ease the tension."

"Tension? "

"Yep, I was worried, if you will show up or not? I wasn't sure whether you took this whole thing seriously."

"Ofcourse I do! But I wasn't expecting you to sit behind a laptop and work."

"Really .. what were you expecting?"

"You know .. your favorite project .. watching women's mammaries for your algorithms." I looked around, showing him all the beautiful women in the shop with my eyes.

"Oh no! .. I am off that project. I realized it wasn't safe for me anymore, so I handed it over to other folks."

"Really! I am sorry if you had to do it because of me." Internally I  felt relieved and thanked him in my mind.

"It is just a project. Some things are more important in life than some technology project." He stopped and looked into my eyes, almost touching my soul. "Technology will move forward with or without me."

"Yep, that is for sure. It would be great if Starbucks has a way to figure out my choice and kept it ready by the time I reach the barista's desk."

"Yeah, I agree. Computers will be making more and more of our decisions in the future. At some point it would change from your choice to computers deciding what is best for you."

"Will that list include  choosing a husband for me? "

"Yep, it's already happening. Dating sites do choose a partner for you based on your profile, so we are already there."

"You think our profiles would match if we put them through their apps?"

"Yes, if I am the designer and developer of the application." He leaned back in his chair and extended his long legs under the table, hitting my leg. The contact left me speechless for few seconds as the shock waves from his touch travelled through my body.

"Ha!, you would probably write it in such a way to favor you." I replied putting down my coffee and adjusting my legs hoping for another contact.

"Probably ... nothing wrong with that. " He replied smiling mischievously at me.

"So, how did you spend the last two days?" I asked, hoping he was as desperate as me.

"Oh! They were exciting and ... painful at the same time. I was so excited about meeting you again that I couldn't do any productive work. At the same time it was painful with all the negative thoughts that keep on popping up. Actually I came in early, hoping you would show up early too, but you seem to be very cool about this whole affair." He replied, obviously unaware about the tension and sleepless nights I had to endure. You could call me a sadist, but I was very happy to note that he suffered more than me.

"Oh! Poor baby!" I replied, making a puppy face and  finished my coffee.

"Do you mind taking a walk to the beach? I have been sitting here too long." He asked, closing his laptop and putting it inside his backpack.

"No problem." I got up and followed him out. We drove in silence upto the beach. He looked busy maneuvering the traffic, but I was sure he was thinking about something - probably me.

I was still thinking about the topic we had to discuss - us, me and him, our future plans and expectations. Are we compatible? Can we live together without killing each other? What are his plans for future?

"Huh! Too many questions and unknowns."

He didn't utter a single word related to marriage. I looked at him as he found a parking spot and effortlessly pulled into the parallel parking spot. He looked so cute that I wanted to reach out and touch his face, but decided against it. He may think I am weird.

As we walked towards the water, I stopped and bent down to remove my heels. He instinctively reached out to hold my shoulder to steady me, but removed it immediately as I turned to look at him.

"Dammit wrong move - I shouldn't have turned."

I was craving for contact. Even the air between us seemed charged with electricity. Walking side by side, I felt thrilled. The small contacts, his hand brushed against mine few times, sending shivers and hitching my breath. My body was so charged, that I had difficulty walking straight and leaned into him a few times, not intentionally,  but seemed to be pulled in by his magnetic field. He didn't seem bothered by it, steadying me everytime. Once we reached the water, I boldly took his hand and stepped into the waves.

We didn't talk about the big issue, but discussed about everything else under the Sun. Any topic that would lead us to the topic of marriage was avoided. In short, both had the best time in life and didn't want to ruin it by talking about our future.

All my nerve endings were on fire, my body felt light and I felt like I was floating in air. I wished the evening would never end. As the evening progressed, he got comfortable enough to hold my hand and rub the inside of my wrist with his thumb. I wasn't certain if he did it on purpose or it just happened, but it felt like he had complete control of my heart.

Finally he took me to a street cart vendor for dinner, instead of some fancy restaurant. I would never risk eating at a street cart, but with him leading me, I felt I could take on anything. Finally he drove me back to my home. I didn't feel like getting out of the car, afraid the dream would end.

"So what now?" I asked him.

"What .. about what?" He questioned me back.

"You know, right now, my parents are standing right behind that door and eagerly waiting, .expecting an answer from me?"

"About what?"

"About us! What is your decision? " I lost patience with him acting as if he didn’t know what I was talking about.

"I think you are the one who needs to make a decision. I made my decision the morning I decided to ditch my cousin and pick you up from the airport." He replied smiling at me.

"So you have absolutely no objections!" I asked trying to keep a lid on the growing excitement and rapidly increasing heartbeat.

"Well .."

"Well ... what?" I asked turning towards him completely. He scared the hell out of me.

He leaned forward, closing the gap between us and touched my face with his fingers.

"Regarding objections .. I wish your nose was little smaller .. your eyes bigger .. your ears. .." he went on feeling my face with his fingers.

"Shutup!" I pushed him away with a pouty face.

"Oh God! What can I say .. you are perfect." He took my hand and grazed it against his lips.

"Well .. it's your last chance buddy .. you have to live with it forever." I pulled my hand back and opened the car door to get off.

"So what is your decision?" He asked, leaning forward in my direction, as if he didn’t know. If there was even a microcosm of doubt in my mind. I would have slapped him when he touched me.

"I am not telling you. I will let my people know, then let my people talk to your people and depending on how things go, your people will let you know."

"That's not fair. I am leaving early tomorrow on a business trip and will be back again next Saturday. Please .." he begged.

"Sweet dreams" I blew him a air kiss and walked to the front door without looking back.

I knew he watched me till I got inside. I was already in seventh heaven. He just made a perfect day incredible. I was already looking forward to meet him next Saturday, knowing by that time our engagement day would be fixed.