4. The not-so-strange stranger

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Phone chimes, informing her of a text message.

“Hi, I am here to deliver your Amazon package. Waiting below your office building, I am deaf and mute and thus cannot call you. Request you to please come downstairs,” it read.

She immediately replied that she was on her way and went downstairs. Once there, she could visibly notice that the delivery person was hassled. With a little bit of sign language that she had learnt, she asked him what the issue was. He signed back informing her that he had run out of his mobile balance and is unable to get in touch with this one other person in the building.

In an attempt to help him, she called the number from her phone,

“Hello,”  a man answered.
“Hi, this is Sarah, we work in the same building. Your Amazon parcel is here can you please downstairs and pick it up? The delivery guy is out of balance to make a call.”
“Oh! I am not at work right now, i'll reach by 4pm.”
“Is it okay if I keep the package with me? I work on the second floor, you can just come pick it up from me.”
“Sure, no problem.”
“Give me a call once you are here, i'll meet you near the elevator”
“Thank you”

She signed for both the packages and went back to work. Being a feature writer was always her dream, having accomplished that she loved her work and always strived to do better.

At around 4pm, she got a call.

“Hey, this is Danny, I am just coming upstairs”
“Sure, see you at the elevator in a second”

She reached elevator just as the door opened and a man, maybe in his mid 30s stepped out. He had a short beard, small eyes and wore a nice smile. She looked at him and thought, “he is cute!”

“Umm.. Sarah?”
“Yes, here,” she said handing him the package.
“Thank you,” he said and stepped back into the elevator to go upstairs.

The entire episode would not have taken more than 10 seconds but somehow it played over in her mind for the rest of the day.

The more she thought about it, she started analyzing him. He seemed older, could be married. He definitely seems like someone who will be married. But he is cute!

She wanted to talk to him, get to know him. Find out if he is married? Is he single? These are questions she needed answers to just so she could decide if there was any potential there.

A quick social media search was futile, she just understood that he was a Tech Writer. And by the looks of it, he knew what he was doing because there was absolutely no information about his personal life on the internet.

Some would call that creepy, in this day and age when everyone is live broadcasting their lives, this fellow had absolutely no online trace. Instead of finding it weird, she was amazed by it.

The next few days they kept bumping into each other, in the canteen, on her way to the office gym or just randomly in the corridors. There was an eerie awkwardness amongst them. They never smiled or acknowledged each other, don't be mistaken, they definitely registered each other’s presence, just didn’t make it obvious.

The stolen glances made her want to get to know him even more.

“You see that fellow there in light blue shirt? I find him really cute,” she told Ruhi during lunch in the office canteen.

Ruhi was her colleague and in the short time that they worked together, they had grown close. Instead of colleague, she now considered Ruhi as a friend who works with her.

“He is not really cute and I think he is a little older for you,” Ruhi was quick to dismiss him.

A couple of months later

Sarah and Ruhi had decided to go for dinner post work to this restaurant that is near the office. Due to the proximity, and the fact that it is open till late and is pretty affordable, the place was popular amongst the people who work in her office.

Sarah was waiting for Ruhi at the bar, a Caprioska by her side and book under her nose. Since her work involves reading and writing all day, reading for leisure was a forgotten concept. To counter that, she now carried a book with her all the time, the minute she gets some free time, she starts reading. While the main characters in the book were flirting with each other, Sarah sighed wondering if there is any romance left in her life. Just then the restaurant door swung open and she looked up, Danny entered.

He looked quite alluring even in his tired post-work look. Sarah returned her gaze back to her book, she didn’t want Danny to catch her eyeing him.

“May I take this seat?” Danny asked pointing to the bar stool next to her.
“Sure,” she said trying to control the glee on her face

He took the seat, ordered a whiskey on the rocks.

“So what are you reading?” he asked
She showed him the book cover, he read the name of the book and asked if she was liking the book.
“It is interesting, I am only half way through.”
“Acha, do you come here often?”
“Maybe two - three times a month, I am waiting for a friend actually.”
“I have seen you in the office couple of times”
“Umm.. me too. Well, since we work in the same building, we are bound to bump into each other”
“And still you never managed to say hi, or smile”
“You could do that too. Also, it is just a little weird. I mean, we don’t know each other”
“Let’s change that then, how about we meet here next friday, after work?,” he asked
“Umm.. sure”
“Until then, let’s just slyly check each other out in the office canteen”

While she looked at him stunned and a little embarrassed, he smiled and left the bar.






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