Adah, we meet again!

There was no doubt, it was Adah. I could have recognized her anywhere, anytime even after all those years, having spent all three years of my B.Com pining for her. Rather than putting on weight as most of our batchmates had done, she had lost few kgs and was actually looking sexier. I had always thought that if I ever met her again, I would be too embarrassed, and would not be able to even open my mouth. Surprising myself, I called out, “Adah!”, and was chatting away as if we were the best of friends when we had last met rather than I was trying to hide from her having said a bit too much at our farewell.

Seeing no ring on her finger, I had to get the most important question out of the way right away, “Are you single?”

A forlorn smile played on her lips, “Single, never married, heart-broken twice.”

“I never thought beautiful girls like you ever got heart-broken, it was always us the guys that would be left heart-broken”, I said going in flashback mode.

“You could just say I’ve been unlucky in love”, she replied.

I remembered the college days, “Till the time I knew of you, I can say you have been unlucky. Being proposed by me almost every year, how many times did I propose to you, thrice?”

“Actually it was four times, I think you would not remember our farewell night. You were completely sloshed, and opened up your heart to me. I don’t think anybody has ever talked to me that way since then.”, she replied.

“Hmmm, I have faint recollections of that night, although I have no memory of being rejected the fourth time by you. The other three rejections were etched deep in my heart and it took some time for me to pry them off.”, I tried hard to remember that night.

She hesitated, “Maybe.. Nah, let it go”

I insisted, “Come on, you can say whatever is on your mind. It has been ages since that episode!”

“Maybe… Maybe, the reason you do not remember the rejection was that I never rejected you the fourth time, I sat silent and did not say anything. I did not know what to say.”, she confessed.

I was stunned, “Why did you not say anything that time?”

“I just did not know what to say.”, she said.

I fired an arrow in the dark, “I know why you did not say anything, you were too ashamed to be seen with me. I was not the cool guy like the studs of our batch, I was but a geek who used to spend his spare time in the library. You had a reputation to maintain, and you maintained it. Ain’t I right?”.

Silent yet again, she nodded. After all those years, finally I had a confirmation of why I was rejected throughout my college life.

Now she shocked me, “I think the fifth time, I would say Yes”. There was pleading sound in what she said.

I answered, “Thanks for rejecting me in college, else I would have never realized that beauty is indeed skin deep and people who truly love each other always look beyond that. I now value my wife even more than I used to. You see I’ve been happily married for 4 years now.”