A New Start

This is what kind of exact conversation I wanted to have with Lucas, because it made me clear that he has no thought of counting this dinner as a date. I gave the Bunny statue to him, he loved it and we took some selfies. But I did not show him another card I bought for him, of course I do not wanted to look stupid. He dropped me at home. We shared a hug at the door. And he went.

    Everything went perfect today, I don't know what worked ? My promise to Linda, or Efforts for myself or acknowledgment about being helpless for next few months, or my new hairstyle. Whatever it may be I wanted it to work again and wanted to live the days with smiles.

    It was Friday afternoon, the last day of the month, I had to achieve my target today itself, everyone in the office including was damn busy, even me and Linda skipped our lunch today. We both were working like hell, without even looking out of the computer.  I was filing details of interested clients in the system suddenly my monitor screen blanken out, I tried to refresh, and pressed some random buttons to make it work but it did not work, so in frustration I kicked the CPU so hard, my computer got switched off and everyone around me looked at me. It made me so embarrassed.

    I hate my computer, when I needed it to stop working or show some problem, it was perfectly working like a newly purchased one but now when it has to work properly, it spoiled all my work. I already had requested to replace it twice, but this cheapster ADC won't listen. 

    I opened my mobile and typed Lu in contacts, before I would finish my typing I realized, now Lucas is no more available for my service, I picked Landline receiver and dialed 3,

    "How may I help you?"

    "Its 388, the Computer has stopped working"

    "Can you please share the issue in detail"

    "Screen Blacken out then PC got switched off"

    "Thank you mam, I will be there to help you in 1 hour"

    "No No, please, I can't wait this long,  please get me help right now"

    "Mam, staff is already left for lunch, and even if lunch time gets over we have complaints pending before you rs to checkout."

    "Please come personally, its really urgent." 

    "Mam I am not a technician, but I will try if someone else can help you with it as soon as possible."

    "Yes please, thank you"

    I cut the call off. I pressed the 'Start' Button on the CPU several times, I thought to google solution but what shall I google? "How to switch on the computer, after kicking it so hard.?"

    Bad idea. I dialed 3 again,     

    "Hello, it's 388 again, I'm waiting, it's really urgent."

    "Mam, it's been only 10 minutes of your last call, I am trying, please wait."

    "Yes please".

    Damn, it was really dumb to call him again, though I knew it would be the same conversation as earlier call. I looked at Linda as she was working at speed as students write exams in the last few minutes. She looked totally messed, frustrated and super busy. Maybe I looked the same when my computer was working. 

    "Coffee??" I asked her.

    "Not now" she replied without looking at me.

    I understood the load on her. I will even have more, if my computer stays in a coma for long. I got up for coffee for myself. I went to the coffee machine, I poured coffee in my mug, but before I could get sugar pouches, I saw the same beard guy, who replaced Lucas, coming from the entry door.

    "Damn, he got selected." My reaction after seeing him again. I immediately kept my mug on the coffee counter and left to catch him for help.

    "Hey, can you please help me with…" I said with excitement, maybe because I found someone who can save my time, and incentives too. 

    Before I could finish he replied, "388?"

    Which made me realise, of course he was here because of my official complaint. So there was no need of requesting him personally, or begging him. Duffer me.

    I shook my head yes and immediately turned and moved toward my cubicle. He followed me.

    "First monitor blacked out and then it got switched off" I said.

    He totally ignored what I said. Damn totally a waste of my energy. Any way it wasn't needed, it wasn't a fake complaint to tell him what happened. He could figure it out by himself. He took a chair, and pressed the Start button on the CPU, which I tried before, of course if this would work, why would I even call him. But as earlier it did not help. I was glad, if Computer would have turned on by pressing the button, it could be counted as history repeating, at least for him.But this time it wasn't a fake complaint.

    He immediately pulled the CPU and turned it, he removed some wires and connected them again, and then pushed it back and switched it on. Damn, it worked. 

    He saw me observing him what he was doing, maybe he was feeling to be a life saver or something, but then we together saw on the screen, it was still blacked out. My eyes were on the computer for one moment and him for another.

    "Helena" I heard a voice from behind, the beard guy and me both took our eyes out off the computer and looked for a voice, it was Austin. Beard guy got busy with his work again, when he realised it was for me.

    "Hi" I was quite shocked, but I did not show it on my face. I wondered what brought him to me. We broke up for so long, my relation graph with Austin creates a Right Angle. We were strangers, then acquaintances, then friends, good friends, best friends, dating and now a complete stranger for the last few months. We have experienced every phase of friendship, in this one and half year. But we had left no purpose of talking again.

    "You left this on the counter" he was standing with coffee mugs in both of his hands, he handed me over one. 

    "Oh, thank you" I held it immediately, anyway I badly needed it. 

    "Anytime" he replied with a smile on his face, taking a sip of his coffee.

    I took a sip of my coffee. It was sweet. The last I remember I did not add sugar.

    "Did you taste it?" I asked with my head crossed.

    "No, is it too sweet?" 

    "Stalker" I smiled at him, taking another sip. He got what I was talking about. He was staring at me pouring coffee. He smiled at me back. I am glad that he still remembers the perfect amount of sugar I add. 

    "I missed you," He said. After some silence.

    "What?" I pretended that I did not hear. My eyes were on the guy fixing my computer. 

    "This, I meant I missed this" he stuttered and continued, "I missed having a coffee break together."

    I smiled, but did not reply. I did not want to stretch this awkward conversation. I was still looking at the computer, wanting it to work again.

    "You straightened your hairs" breaking awkward silence Austin said.

    "It was like this only, since I was born."  I laughed a little. Maybe to turn the conversation into a funny one.

    "No, I meant…" Austin said still in his 'trying to be friends again' tone.

    "Yeah I know, Stephen told you, so am I still talk of the town." I said sarcastically, looking straight in his eyes.

    "It is never like that," Austin said, trying to avoid eye contact.

    "Cool" I replied in a normal tone, as I knew he was trying to fix things between us, so to give him one chance more I  decided not to be rude anymore, and continued, "Actually it was just a one day thing, I had to meet someone".

    "Oh, are you into someone?" he asked immediately in a voice raised more than usual.

    "Nooo" I replied with both my eyebrows raised, to make him realise he sounded weird. Which made him embarrassed and silent. I felt to be rude, so I continued to break silence, "It was just a casual meeting with Lucas."

    "Ohh I see, he left his job, I heard, I wish I could have met him before he left" he replied turning the conversation into a normal one.

    "Yeah, but you were on leave, He left on monday" I replied casually, not realising I just created a mess. 

    "Glad you noticed my absence." He smiled. 

    I felt silent. I felt this to be the end of our conversation, but he continued, "So where is he now?"

    "Sorry??" I replied taking last sip of coffee

    "Lucas, actually you know we were just acquaintances" He replied.

    "Yeah I know, he is not into job now, he started his own startup" I replied, looking at the guy who was supposed to fix my computer but unfortunately was busy texting somebody, or maybe he was finding a solution on google, as it been just few days of his new job, I wish Lucas was there instead of him.

    "Did he? That's great, But as I remember him telling me about some investment issues he had" He replied. Taking the last sip of his coffee.

    "Yeah, he had, but his boss helped him with everything"

    "Great Man I must say," He replied.

    "Yeah, actually, he is a man with a golden heart, Lucas told me many stories of him helping people, it made me a fan of him, really impressed with him." 

    "Lucky him, it took one and half years, but you are still not impressed enough with me." He laughed avoiding eye contact.

    "Not again please" I laughed back.

    "But have you met him ever, his boss?, I mean it's strange, he owns an agency working here, but never visits, I am working here since so long, but I have never seen him yet" Austin asked curiously.

    "I cannot say met, but yes I saw him on monday, that's the reason I am more impressed by him."

    "Ohh is he handsome?" Austin asked me in a weird tone. I knew when I said I was impressed, he felt jealous, so I intentionally repeated it. 

    "Are you gay or jelous?" I laughed. And continued "He is just average looking guy, means if I judge him by looks, he looks like a guy graduate having backlogs, a loser, had no any ego, attitude, charmness, nothing on his face. What I heard about him from Lucas about his character was completely opposite of his looks, that's the reason I am his fan, simply living higher thinking." I replied, looking at Austin's face. He looks damn cute when he is jealous.

    "Great, so why did you not propose to him" He replied sarcastically.

    "Ohh I would if I could" I replied smiling. 

    Now I was enjoying the conversation, I was enjoying making Austin more jealous and frustrated. I wanted to stretch the conversation as it was going on. Before I could continue talking, the guy fixing computer got up, stretching his hand. I turned to him. "Are you done?Is it working?", pointing to computer I asked, 

    "Not yet" he replied.

    "How much time will it take? Will it recover the file I was working on, I had not saved it?" I asked, worrying.

    "Monitor cant be repaired here, I am attaching temporarily another, it will take some more while, your file will be recovered." He replied in a vanilla tone. But I noticed, this was the first longest sentence he said till now. and yes the first time he was not rude.

    "Ok thank you" I replied.

    Immediately I turned to Austin, as I wanted to see his jealous face more, but now it was normalised.

    "So where I was" I asked with a wide smile on my face to remind him of his jealousy.