A Small Push

At the bookstore, the boy bumps with the girl.

Girl indignantly says, “Hey watch out.”
Boy apologizes, “I am sorry, I missed a step.”
Irritated, the girl replies, “That sounds like an explanation to your Physics teacher while doing an experiment that went haywire.”
Innocently the boy agrees, “That may be true – I never had an appetite for Physics. Literature was my forte.”
The girl’s interest is piqued, “Literature? You seem to be the true geek type.”
Boy, “Well I am a geek who is into literature, but how can you be so sure that I am a geek.”
For the first time the girl smiles the smile that says isn’t-that-obvious, “A stubble looks sexy only on Abhishek Bachchan, tousled hair looks good on Tom Cruise, and spectacles look cool on Hrithik Roshan. Combine all three where the stubble is approaching beard, tousled is approaching disheveled, and spectacles are more like the ones worn by Babu Rao in Hera-Pheri, the result – a geek to the heart. And with a cookbook in your hand I can also proclaim that you seem to be a bachelor.”
The boy gets out another innocuous reply, “You do seem to know a lot about me.”
Grinning widely the girl replies, “Oh yeah I have been spying on you.”
Finally the boy musters some courage to get out more then a few words, “Well well well. I did not know the paths trodden by a geeky bachelor could be of any importance to a beautiful damsel.”
If real life could have smilys the girl’s face would have shown Instead she says, “Hey did you just compliment me? I thought geeks to be tongue-tied.”
Warming up to the conversation, the boy replies, “Oh yes! Shyness is a trait of our breed which can be overcome only in select company.”
The girl retorts, “Hmmm, you have known me for about 75 seconds and I am in ’select’ company.”
Now the boy smiles, “Well my Physics experiments did go haywire, but I was a Chemistry whiz. Maybe the chemistry is working its charm today.”
Girl asks, “Are you sure about the charm? “
Boy answers, “Ohh! I am sure. I have broken my record of talking to a beautiful girl by at least 75 seconds. Till now the record was of 2 seconds that were used in saying, ‘Excuse me’.”
The girl concurs; and not, “Well I am still not sure about the charm, but there sure is some chemistry. “
The boy calls up on every ounce of audacity and blurts, “Shall we add some caffeine catalyst and observe the reaction?”
With mock anger the girl replies, “Did you just ask me out?”
The boy misses the ‘mock’, but catches the ‘anger’, “Ummm, maybe. Well… “
The same mock anger lingers, but the corners of the lips are curling upwards, “Where did your verbosity disappear? And did you really ask me out?”
The boy stammers, “Uhhh, I just realized that I asked a girl out for the first time in my life and without the original context it could have been easily misinterpreted as a chemistry experiment statement.”
A smiling face says, “Once a geek, always a geek.”
Hopefully the boy says, “I hope you change me.”
Quashing the hope the girl replies, “Hey I did not even say yes to your offer of coffee. How can you be sure that I’d change you?”
Confusion is written all across the boys face as he stammers again, “Uh-huh… So… is that a no?”
The girl laughs loudly; “No, where is the coffee?” takes her hand and leads her out of the bookstore.

*

An instant message pops up – “Satan: Hey I saw you nudge him“
The reply reads – “God: Satan, aren’t marriages made in heaven? I just gave him a small push; rest was what they did ”