An unexpected twist in an ordinary trip

I am gonna break away from my paragraph blogs into something more detailed because I need to do justice to the string of events that happened during my highly eventful trip.

It started out as just another family trip .. just that my nephew joined the bandwagon. A boring train journey and hot weather to greet us at the other end of the journey. After quickly finishing breakfast, we headed out to my dad's native town to start the holy temple visiting.

Dressed in a boring salwar looking more like fruitcake, we headed out. Once we reached we checked into a hotel. Very nice place overlooking the sea.

As I just stopped for a minute to gaze out of the balcony to admire the beautiful blue ocean staring at me with enviable serenity, my eyes just strayed off to the ground and there I saw what was probably the most mysterious yet powerful eyes ever. He was breath takingly handsome. Our eyes met for just a few seconds and I had trouble lifting my gaze off to avoid drooling on his face. Casting stolen glances at him I looked away wondering if I'll ever see him again. Then my mom bellowed.. had to oblige. So I ran back into my room.

We took 2 rooms to accommodate our extended family and I was the ward boy. Had to run between the two rooms to deliver personal messages, schedules, food, water and huggies for the little one. Just when I thought I'll hit the bed, my mom sends me off another delivery to the other room. Sloppily, rubbing my eyes I dragged myself and bumped into someone as the darkness temporarily misled me. In other words, I was 'Sleep-Drunk'. I heard a deep voice say 'Whoa.. I am sorry, I didn't quite see you'. As I tilted my head to see 1) who's the dude with good English in this part of the state? 2) who's the guy taller than me? - I saw those mesmerising eyes again. This time our eyes met for more than a few seconds (I know it sounds like a movie.. but bear with it.) We had a smile on our faces, acknowledging the previous encounter. I started stammering and stuttering.. not able to conjure up anything intelligent to say. Finally after saying 'Err..' for 10 secs continuously, I asked wat I wanted to know - "You stay in this floor?" .. He smiled coz he knew what I was thinking. He said "Yeah..I stay in room 149.. I am here with my sis and mom..temple visiting" I said "I am here temple visiting too :-) with my family". Not knowing what to say after that we just said 'goodnight' and drifted off.

When I went to bed I was thinking of him invariably - He was tall.. around 6 ft.. wheatish complexion, dark hair, eyes that speak volumes, well built, broad chest.. all-in-all .. godly!! Tired and exhausted, I dozed off.

I woke all groggy and I see noone's in the room. Everyone left to see the sunrise without me. Grr.. I always get left behind. I grumpily washed up and suddenly got reminded of Mr.Godly. I was in 148.. he was in 149.. so I opened the door and looked to my right with just my head popping out of the door. The door was slightly ajar and I tried to get a clearer view. Engrossed in my efforts, I didn't hear the footsteps behind me. I suddenly hear an 'ahem' right behind me. With a sheepish look, I turned to see him standing .. again.. I began fumbling for words.. and managed to bring the rest of my body out of the door. I began with 'errr...' routine when he said "I know you were looking for me".. Defensively I said 'NO'..ignoring me he continued saying "Well.. here I am.. Why were u looking for me?".. I was dumbstruck, at a complete loss for words "Don't assume things.. I just wanted to know who was in the next room".. He just said "Next time alter your expression to make me buy that lie" and walked past me. I was flushed.. totally flushed. I was taken aback.. by his guts.. his charm and his confidence. I decided to stay put in the room till my parents return to avoid further embarrassment.

A little while later, I heard voices outside the door. I peeked again despite the 'risks' to see him talking to my parents. I was .. err.. 'worried'. Was he complaining? Ayyo! My mom will kill me! After a painful and worrisome 5 minutes, my parents enter all laughing.. Thought bubble - *Atleast they wont kill me*. My mom said "We were talking to this boy next door .." Me thinks *and....* "they wanted to know how to go about the temple visit.. so me and dad asked them to join us". Me thinks *Am I supposed to be happy? or sad?.. I am confused for now*.

The evening came and we headed off to the temple. He didn't act like he knew me and I was wondering why. Then started the glance exchanging. Everytime I shot off a glance at him, he was there almost anticipating my look. There was this spurt of butterflies running wild in my stomach everytime that happened. This continued all through the evening till we reached the room. All this while he didnt utter a word.. just general acknowledgement and tons of glances. I thought maybe he didn't want to come off as needy so didn't try anything. Just picturing some movie scene , I headed off to the terrace to catch the full moon. We were supposed to leave early next morning. I thought like the hero in the movie, he would also sense that I was in the terrace and come. But he didn't. I sighed and came down when as usual I bumped into him. He said "Varun" .. I was like "eh?".. "That's my name" he said. "I am Priya". "Coming up or going down?" he asked. I lied saying I was going up..So I can spend sometime with him.

After some "err"s we struck up sensible conversation. After some kadalai frying, we were heading back our rooms when he decided to help me down the wall I was perched upon. He held my hand.. for a while more than required and stepped closer to me. I kept telling myself to snap outta it.. for god's sake this is not some movie. But it was almost close to that. We kept looking at each other and me being me.. I started fiddling with my cellphone to avoid the awkwardness and in a desperate attempt to keep my stupid stomach butterflies from flying. We casually exchanged numbers and eluded the romance that was meant to follow by deciding to head back to our rooms.

I finally slept after calming down the butterflies and convincing myself that this is not a dream. I woke up to find just one sms which was from him - It said, "Yesterday was wonderful.. and it was just because of you". I couldn't help but let a smile creep into my face.

We were running late and had to push off. I couldn't see him before we left. But I still had that message that I kept reading over and over again .. hopelessly romantic. When the car was turning away from the hotel , I looked up.. and just saw his silhouette briskly moving. I knew for sure.. he was searching for me. I just left.. wishing that I could relive the previous night.

As fascinating as that sounds .. though that's the trip I would've liked to have, I didn't. Snap outta it people! We (me and my family) just went and visited some temples. I came back with plenty of sunburns, a perfectly terrible tan and the return of my dreaded allergy. Romance? I am glad I can still spell it. :-)

..p..