‘Hey, you remember the day we met..?’

It had been days since they had a proper conversation. Too much time together can do that to people. For five years they had been telling each other every single thing that happened in their separate lives and every single thing that they wanted to happen in the life that they were building together, one step at a time. At first it used to be things like how she didn’t like the three-day stubble that he always had on his face. It was not like he was growing a beard. He didn’t like being clean shaved, but he did it anyway because she wouldn’t let him kiss her otherwise and that he knew was a sacrifice worth it.

Sometimes when there was a match that he really wanted to watch till the end, he would ignore her calls for supper. Then she would come sit beside him on the sofa with a plate, he would absent mindedly open his mouth and she would feed him while he cursed the umpires for an unfair decision with that mouthful. She didn’t particularly like it but she knew he appreciated it because it reminded him of his mother. Now, five years later it was like there was nothing left to say. They felt at ease just sitting there leaning on the bedrest reading their separate books, not talking. Just knowing that the other was there on the opposite side of the bed was enough. But something was different tonight.

‘Hmmm..?’, he hadn’t heard what she had asked.

‘You remember the day we met.?’, she asked again.

It struck him as odd that she would ask this question just before bedtime. He kept aside the book he was reading and looked at her. She had her eyes on a book that she was pretending to read and she was fidgeting with a strand of hair that fell on her face. He knew there was something on her mind.

‘I think so, why..?’, he said weighing his words carefully.

‘This book I’m reading, the guy and the girl meet exactly how we met.’, she said without taking her eyes of the book.

‘On a train..?’

‘Yes, they see each other for the first time and they fall in love.’, she looks at him and attempts a smile.

He had seen her smile a thousand times and had been proud that most of the time it was him that put it on her face. But tonight he knew right away that she was faking it.

He reached out and held her hand. It was cold and she was shivering.

‘Is there something you want to tell me..?’, he asks her feeling her getting tense.

She waits as if searching for the right words,

‘I’m scared… .. I’m afraid I’ll scare you too if I say it.’, she looks away.

‘Hey… come here.’, he pulls her into a hug and kisses her forehead.

He caresses her hair trying to calm her down.

‘You know what…. you gave me the biggest scare of my life when you took five seconds too long to say yes when I was on my knees with a ring five years ago. I promise you there’s nothing you can say that can scare me more.’

She let out a faint laugh and sat upright. Now she was smiling and he knew it was real. She was staring at him as though she was upto some mischief and she said,

‘You remember the other day we went shopping and you had to pull me away from a baby buggy that I thought was too cute.’

‘Hmm, I think I do.’, he said still oblivious.

‘Well, in a few months you’ll actually have to buy it.’