Obsession

The alarm sounds blazed across the room, but not for long. She was awake, and not in a disoriented way either, just awake, like she does every single day, like the rest of this world, like she is supposed to. The gym will come soon, the office will come soon, her personal time comes after that, and everything is happening the way it should.

Meanwhile, in a different part of the city, he woke up too, cursing the alarm, wishing his cafe would run by itself for at least a day, hoping he will find one crore rupees lying around in the ground and he doesn’t have to do this anymore, but unfortunately, he had to wake up, start the day, like the rest of the world, like he was supposed to. The loading guys were coming soon, the cafe was coming soon, and then, she was coming too, which made his morning routine or a lack of it, much better.

The clock was particularly dragging that day. In the office, people visited her desk so often you would think there was something special going on there, at least a free meal program. But no, she was just the unofficial fire extinguisher of the team and putting out disasters one git push at a time while staring at her own code like it owes her money was a daily side hustle. Still, when the clock strikes 6, she wouldn’t waste a minute, no matter what is happening around her, she is out of the office and heading to the favourite part of her day.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, that is the favourite part of his day as well. He is waiting in anticipation at the cafe the moment it hits 6 PM. His staff is a little concerned, but they know this is routine, and they don’t really get paid that much to care, so they let it go. At around 6:15, she opens the door, the bell jingles, she smiles at him, he offers the greeting of the day, she responds with the emotional warmth of a tree trunk, but genuine, and goes to her usual corner table. She takes out her book from the bag, or a new book from the shelves above, he brings her usual order, and she stays, drinking, reading, being her calmest self. And he pretends to work while secretly, or not so secretly, watching her every 2 minutes. It was a perfect system, for someone, not clear who at this point.

“How is my favourite engineer this evening?”

“That would have been flattering if you knew any other engineers.”

“Just take a compliment, would you? Now, how many disasters today?”

She closes the book with the tired sigh of a woman who is so close to being done with life.

“You know, the usual. A bug here, a missing null check here, and I get to do all their jobs. Some of them earn 5 times my salary, it’s exhausting”

Kiran nodded like he understood every word; he didn’t, but he was proud of the fact that most probably he was one of the very few people who could make her talk like this. From the moment Neha first walked into the cafe a year ago, he noticed her. At first, it was curiosity, then more curiosity, then more, and when it started reaching the point of creepiness, he backed off a bit. She never noticed. They didn’t talk about anything personal; all he knew was that she was basically alone, no friends, no fun weekend plans, no obvious romances happening, which was very important information. And now, somehow, her corner table always remains reserved, and his entire day revolves around seeing her in the evening for an hour. He wouldn’t forget the dark day of September 2025 when she couldn’t come to the cafe because of a team outing. He doesn’t want to talk about it.

“That sounds exhausting. Anyways, I will let you get back to your book”

“Thank you”

He walked back to the station, again, pretending to work, with a small smile permanently plastered like a Botox treatment gone wrong. He should ask her out, and he will, soon, maybe, probably, but soon.

That night when he went to bed, he didn’t know his entire life was going to take a somersault in a few hours. But for now, he was deeply asleep.