No Romance

Hey, it's  been a while~! On to the good stuff.

One of the most prominent reasons in my love for Abu Dhabi is the public transportation system. Specifically speaking-- the public buses. Cheap, efficient, and will take you wherever you want, what more could a city dweller with places to go ask for?


On one of these buses, the one I used every morning to go to work, I saw her.

Cropped dark hair underneath a navy colored cap, large black sunglasses, a security guard uniform, and a pair of polished men’s shoes topped off by a men’s golden watch—I was smitten.

Every day for a couple of months before I had the courage to clumsily hand her my number in an awkward little note with an inelegant ‘Call me?’ scribbled underneath the digits, I would steal glimpses at her, playing scenes in my head about how I’d approach her, how we’d converse, how we’d hit it up right away and become a couple. Mundane events like going to the movies, or going out for ice cream, or to a restaurant for a nice dinner all became so much more enticingly fun and romantic in my head.

It was impossible to get close to her. When the bus would reach our bus stop, the seat next to her would already be occupied, and as more and more people would get on, the minute it was empty someone else filled it. That was the dance till the moment she got off at her stop.

That’s only half the truth, though, as although I thought about her nonstop, I was too cowardly to approach her. I wasn’t confident; ‘will she like me?’ I thought. ‘What if she doesn’t find me attractive? What if she rejects me? ‘

And so the ‘Aww, shucks, the seat next to my snazzy-love-interest-who-doesn’t-know-I-like-her-from-afar is occupied! I can’t speak to her, I guess!’ excuse worked well for me.

One day I decided to gather my inner courage and attempt to sit next to her and start a conversation. Instead of rushing in to find a seat before they were all taken as was my want, I simply waited patiently for all the women to file in and take all the free seats in the women’s section of the bus. I went in last, and stood strategically behind my object of fascination. Unfortunately, the woman next to my target got off at a place not so far from my target’s stop. So when I sat next to her, I had to control the pounding in my ears quickly and get to the point. I did talk to her, and it was the first and last time we spoke in person. She was in her seat nodding off slightly as usual when I go her attention with an ‘excuse me’. She looked at me startled and I asked her where she worked. She answered. Her voice was surprisingly soft and she seemed shy. She asked me why I would want to know. I said ‘Oh, no reason’ and then her stop came and she got off.

For a long while I was content with obsessing about that dull exchange of words. I turned and tossed at night, replaying every move and sound leading up to her quietly taking her leave.

The turning point came when I was going to be moved to another office, and so due to the different routes would have had to start taking a different bus. In the beginning, for a very short instant, I was devising ways to take the same bus as her and then get off somewhere where I would take a second bus to work. Then it hit me how fraking creepy that was. As I had no desire to become reach an ever lower level of creepiness than I already had, I made up my mind to approach her directly.

When the moment of truth came, on my last ride on the same bus as her, I chickened out, of course. I wanted to talk, but my brain was empty and I could not think of a single thing to say. I wasn’t sitting next to her and wasn’t trying to, as well. As her stop drew near, it was now or never, and inspiration hit. I tore a piece of paper from god knows where and scribbled my number with a simple message underneath: ‘Call me’.

But even then I was nervous, ‘Call me.’ Seemed so bossy and domineering. So I tore off another piece and wrote ‘Call me~?’, but this too seemed overly friendly and slightly spoiled bratty what with the wavy dash and all. When I finally settled on a simple, unpresumptuous ‘Call me?’ she was already getting ready to get off. My heart went wild, my chest burned, my vision was spotted with blinking stars… but I gave her my note. In awkward, clumsy, uninspired movements, I went 'excuse me', handed over the paper and then quickly turned away from her as she, befuddled but having to move, got down at her stop.

I would later learn that she couldn’t even take a look at my face. That’s how sonic the hedgehog frantic I was.

It also turned to be a blessing in disguise, as my first attempt at romance went miserably wrong.


To Be Continued!



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