He kept checking his messenger, the status was still idle. It was half past 11, manager had already hovered around his desk and caught him staring at the messenger,twice!!

He couldn’t concentrate, the status should have changed to ‘available’ at 10! . Should I give a call and check? Na, why should I ?and what am I supposed to say? Hi, I was wondering why you weren’t online? Yeah rite! and make a fool of myself. talking to himself, something he did always.

He chucked the idea and two clicks later , he was no longer signed in. 10 secs later, click. click. Nothing had changed, they weren’t any offline messages!. ‘That’s it. You gotta finish the module! Rem’m? “ he signed out again.

Concentrating hard, he started coding. For the next 60 mins he was tempted 12 times to sign in and check, but he fought his urge, hard he fought.When he no longer couldn’t, he signed in and there it was , a message. ‘Hi, where are you?’

A smile appeared on his face, he felt good , happy inside. If anyone was around, it would have been very difficult to lie, he suddenly felt like a teenager.It had been a very long time since he felt this feeling. The status had turned “available”.

Chatting with his friends few weeks ago,he had sort of to come to realize.
He double clicked on the name, the window was open, he typed “Hi.”
“Hey, where were up?”
“Bus, kinda busy with work. Kuch kaam tha? Where were u?” Happy!!
“Got late, missed the bus . na re, bus aise hi. :)”
“aach sun, what are you doing for lunch?” Scared
“kuch khaas nahi”
“meet me for lunch ? at pizza hut?” Shit, I did it.
No reply. why? why? Oh man!
3 secs later
“sure, kyon nahi. But you are paying 😀 ”
“ha ha ha I will!” Relieved, excited and scared!!

Decided to meet in the cafeteria,this would be the first time, he would be all alone with her,away from office. His heart skipped a beat, there she was, waiting from him. Dressed in Red T, dark blue jeans, red frame glasses and her hair held behind with a band. “Damn! I like her!”. That was Radhika
“Hi Arul!, dude you are late” Well, he was in the loo , staring at himself , straighting his shirt, basically making sure he looked his best.A job had to be done!
“Hi Radhika, nice T” smiling, a smile that was!
“Oh, this one? Its sooo old, I am planning to discard it!” returning the smile
“Chale?”
It was just 5 mins walk away, In pizza hut, he made sure the table was away from the crowd, in a corner. Once seated, they placed their order.
she said “Yaar, kuch tho special hai, tu itna smart phele tho nahi laaga? Kya baat hai?”
“Baat tho hai! Special baat hai” his palms sweating, he continued
“Everyone except you, seems to know, I think its time you know about it”
She suddenly was quite, she knew this would happen, but so soon?.Trying to sound calm, she changed the topic
“Aacha baat hai, woh rishi jo hai, usne parul ko.”
He wasn’t ready to give up, not now.
“Radhika.Its time, and you have to let me do it”
He got up and before she knew, he was on his knees, holding a diamond ring
she opened her mouth , and he heard “Abey Saale”
“Huh?” What?
“Ooye!, Saale!” Rishi, rishi ki awaaz!!

Suddenly he felt a sensation on his cheeks.
“Ooye saale! Desk pe so gaya!! Kute, abhi manager aaya tha, shukar kar mein idhar hi tha, nahin tho tu to gaya tha aaj! Coding karate karate sau gaya! Kamine!” laughing

Rubbing his cheek, he opened his eyes, “saale, climax pe utta diya! do min ek baad uttha deta!! Bus woh bolne hi waali thi Yaar”