The Gift

‘Even if we could turn back, we’d probably never end up where we started’. An encounter with this quote in one of the books suspended his reading. Something deep was imbibed in the line. Regardless of zero correlation, it made him remember her. The statement was flammable and in no time, he experienced an urge for contradicting it. Her friendship was the best thing which could have happened to him. However, it had gone astray since past some time and he could not think of anything better but this to achieve his contradiction.

Rekindling anything is tough and this situation was nothing different. After brainstorming for three weeks, the idea of gifting her on upcoming birthday sounded best to him. He was not oblivious of the fact that she did not like these formalities yet his belief that she’ll for sure be elated upon seeing the gift, overpowered any other thoughts. Somehow with her, he believed in instincts.

He was excited. He was happy. He had planned everything perfectly but little did he anticipate the upcoming jolt. A week prior to the day, he expressed his intent to meet her. She was a highbrow. It took her less than a minute to figure out what he had been up to. Their discussion that day ended up on a completely opposite lane than its start. Somewhere in the middle she even mentioned about not meeting him ever if he happened to get her a gift. She was apathetic. She was indifferent.

He had anticipated her reaction, however, the one thing which he did not anticipate was his strong aloofness to the efforts. She was unmoved, she remained untouched - totally opposite to the person he used to know some time back. The lines of the book danced strangely around him - ‘Even if we could turn back, we’d probably never end up where we started’.

The next morning, a gift was ordered with two changes - content and shipping address. Her smile was invaluable - true but beginning that night, he started appreciating his own smile even more.