Hello everyone! Thank you for coming to my page to read my first novel ‘Pink Blossom’, it truly means a lot to me. I hope you join me on this very personal journey and can’t wait to hear what you think about my book. Enjoy!
The orange yellow hue of the sky had started to dissipate as the ocean of pink overwhelmed it, the sun peeking down beyond the horizon. Sid had been waiting in the cafe for one hour, on his third cup of coffee and growing restless. He was agitated, his stomach felt like a balloon of anxiety ready to pop. He murmured to himself about how he shouldn’t have come or that he should have come late and made Takat wait for him, instead of the opposite. But if he did that, he knew Takat’s temperament and how he would complain the entire time about how he had to wait for him and that he owed him a favor for the dismal treatment. But if Takat was on the other end of it, like a child he would dismiss it as it was no big deal and this was how their relationship had evolved over the years. Didn’t he realize that Sid flew thousands of miles to meet him? Or did he even care? Sid started to grind his teeth, that was a recent habit of his when he was under distress that he did unknowingly. He flew thousands of miles to be stood up like a stranger, his heart started to feel awry, but his pride dismissed this sensitive feeling on the caffeine he was pumping himself up with.
Just as he stood up to leave, his annoying little brother entered the cafe — a big smile on his face, looking straight at Sid with his hands out, gesturing a hug.
“My brother! My fault, I was stuck in traffic and wanted to get you something special, how are you my friend?!”
Sid was not a combative person, his demeanor for the most part was very laidback and while he was raging inside, he accepted the hug his friend had offered him. He did not understand if it was a lack of awareness or selfishness, but it was hard to be angry at a person happily embracing you with a gift in hand. Sid grinned nervously while gritting his teeth inside his mouth. This was Takat in a nutshell — socially unaware but with good intentions. He wasn’t always like this, in fact, he used to be the sweetest kid on earth; very innocent and kind hearted but as time wore on so did his spirit. His current form was adaption to circumstances in his past, this was the response his body and mind gave to the world. Sid hated this about himself, he always found a way to rationalize people’s actions. He was built on empathy and could relate to anyone just by analyzing their behavior and their past history. This, however, made him the stereotypical “nice guy”, a label he so desperately wanted to wipe from his inner being. Often times felt himself too soft hearted and too cruel when he had to put his foot down, something he was very close to at this moment. And so after embracing each other, Sid addressed the elephant in the room, the one he had been observing from different angles in the past hour.
“What happened to you?”
Sid blurted out impatiently, he could no longer keep the question inside. Takat fidgeted in his chair in discomfort.
“Let me get a drink first, man. Then, we can talk.”
And so the conversation hung on a string, yet again. Takat had this pet peeve on not feeling dominated, he was ultra aware about it and whenever anyone else had the upper hand, he bolted. But this was not the case, he had mistook his dear friend’s intentions, which was the case most of the times. This was not an alpha move by Sid but regardless, the surface tension began to rise again between the two men, now adults sizing each other up. Sid had been leaning forward in anticipation of an honest conversation between them but relaxed back in his chair in disappointment. It was Takat’s childish way or the highway and little known to him, Sid was not afraid to go the highway route this time. While Sid was very caring and comforting to his friends, so much so he regarded them as family, he had steadily developed a low tolerance for repeat contentious behavior that damaged his relationship with them. He lived with the philosophy of ‘everything is temporary’ and while not totally letting things be or go, he would make an attempt to sustain them, until his attempts surely were futile.
After Takat grabbed his coffee, he came back with the gift in hand.
“Open it.”
He said in excitement not reading his friend’s mood.
“The vibe was ruined and all he could think about was this gift”, Sid thought to himself.
“Okay I’ll tell you, there’s this festival in Goa that I want to take you to and I got you tickets for it. You’ll go, right?”
Sid sighed. His little brother had made plans for him without his knowledge, but in actuality he did want to visit Goa — the beautiful beach town about an hour flight from the city of Mumbai. He had heard stories of how incredible it was, from the sights to the women and the food and so feeling conflicted inside, he reluctantly accepted his gift and forgave him, unbeknownst to Takat his true feelings inside. He would do it, the trip was a good idea badly presented, but it would help clear his mind. Besides, how would Takat’s wife feel about all this? From the few times he met her, she didn’t seem like the agreeable type — she needed her husband’s attention on her at all times. But when he asked Takat about this complication, he was told she had already given him the green-light and she wanted him to enjoy his boys trip.
Sid thought long and hard about this reply and he came to the conclusion that something was wrong. This was not like her and he had been acting strange, but considering this relationship he let this thought slide for once and tried to enjoy the moment without expressing his thoughts. This was his little brother and although he was late, he still made plans to spend time with him. Takat was the type of person to overly do things, he liked to do things with the intention of creating memories — which seemed pure at heart but was annoying at best. If Sid had said no to this trip, he wouldn’t have spoken to his friend again for months on end until Takat cooled down and needed an excuse to reach out to him. He was mature but childish at the same time, which was such a rare find these days.
He knew that you need people like this in your life, the ones that spruce things up and make them exciting, even if it’s with a little drama. And because of this, he knew that Takat had planned the trip to be with his friend alone to talk to him and express his true feelings, which at this point seemed to be about his wife. And so after reminiscing about old memories and getting excited at the thought of creating new ones, they departed ways after a fruitful conversation that started off sour but ended up sweet, like an unripe mango.
And as Sid walked back to his hotel he smiled at the thought of how his friend was still the same even after all the years apart and all the things that had transpired in the years leading up to this meeting. He truly missed him but certain things his pride wouldn’t allow and it was such a feeling that stayed with him until he reached the front of his hotel where he saw again the rose queen, her skin glistening in the dim light as sun was powering down. And she looked majestic in the dry wind as she packed up for the day. Then as if time stopped for a split second, they shared a quick look as she looked up picking up the trove of flowers scattered about on the ground. Sid smiled, she did not. She turned her head in haste as if she was in a hurry and disappeared like smoke down a thin alleyway. She had seen that kind of look before in Sid’ eyes and she wasn’t ready to go down that path, especially with some foreigner — who most likely came to pillage her country for it’s secret treasures, but she wouldn’t be one of those, no, she was better than that.
And so Sid stood there, dumbfounded as he had never experienced such a thing since he had become famous. Besides that, he was a rich foreigner and she, some little flower girl. She was clearly outmatched but still she had turned around before savoring his gaze, before he could let out any sweet words from his mouth to run his battle tested game on her. He wasn’t new to this world of women, even before he became famous, he struggled for years before unlocking the secret to talking and eventually bedding many a woman.
This was a cause he dedicated this entire life to, he just never understood women, how they would seek tender and want rugged. The truth was most women didn’t know what they wanted and the suitors goal was to plant the seed of desire to envelope her in his aura, to nurture the growth of attraction by subtle seduction, everything needed to be planned at every step and only men who had crashed and burned knew exactly what steps to take and what levers to pull.
But she foresaw this as she had seen this dance many times in her lifetime, seamlessly performed or not, it was always the woman’s decision to entertain this performance and she wasn’t interested in his shenanigans. And Sid put his head down in sulk, opened the hotel door and looked back down the alleyway where Rose had disappeared into and released a mild smile, because he was up for the challenge. And so he walked back to the hotel room and fell onto the soft mattress, looking up at the ceiling with a smirk and planning his strategy for their next encounter.
If you liked the above story, the right thing would be to give me a follow. The wrong thing would be to ignore this message (really hope I didn’t use reverse psychology here!).
