It has been a year since the fiasco last Valentine’s Day, I thought as I walked down the hill, away from the lecture hall. But I wasn’t one to give up that easily. The season had turned many times and each had given us a new memory. I was sure things would be different this time.
“Hey! What’s up, Vick.” I gave a loud pat on Vivek’s shoulder and we naturally gravitated toward the college canteen. “Vik, I want to talk to you about something very important”, I muttered as we pulled the molded plastic chair and settled around a canteen table. The lectures were still on and this gave us the perfect chance to have a chat without much crowd in the canteen. “This is about the 14th, right?”, guessed Vik.”I can tell, you are nervous after last year’s debacle. But then, things between you two appear quite steady now?” Vik called for a round of tea and then shifted a bit to face me.
“It’s like this. We are steady, but I have learned my lesson. She wants me to make a lot of noise. A gesture that can announce us to the world.”
“Hmmm . . . “, grunted Vik and appeared to be lost in thought. After a long pause and a sip of the hot tea, Vik hastily returned his hands to the warmth of his jacket pockets. January was unusually cool this year. The recent snow in the mountain ranges had pushed a wall of cold air into the plains. “I have a solution for you. Did you see that Close-Up video contest?”, inquired Vik. “The one that actually pays you to do just what you want for your sweetheart.” Vik couldn’t resist the mischievous smile that graced his face.
“Oh no. no . . . no . . . no . . I want to do something, but not take a part in some contest with her. Can you even imagine how I could convince her to do something like this? ”, I snapped.
“Just listen to me first, before going all decent on me. You don’t need to involve her at all. You just need to make a grand gesture and surprise her. I don’t care if you record a video of this and enter the competition! I am just saying that there are some amazing suggestions that you can use”, pressed on Vik.
“You know what? Forget the competition. I have an excellent idea. We are almost done with our remote plane project. Last couple of trial runs too went without a hitch.” Vik’s enthusiasm was infectious and I couldn’t resist anymore. I wanted to explore this idea further and nudged Vik to continue with his grand plan to ask Dee out for Valentine’s Day.
“You know there is a big soccer game next week. You just get Dee to join you for the game. There will be a huge crowd and it will be all filmy.” Vik eagerly waited for me to answer.
“Ok, but what’s the plan?”, I asked
“During half-time, I will get our project team to fly the remote-controlled plane with a banner that will ask Dee out for Valentine’s Day. We will put your name, of course”, said Vik eagerly.
“You want me to say Yes, yes? It is not that easy. Why are you so sure she will like this?”, I said. “Give me some time to think.”
I got up and walked up to the cashier to pay the bill. It was already late for our Psych lecture. We stepped out of the canteen and started to jog to the classroom across the campus. These small jogs at least helped keep us warm a bit during Winter.
* This post is written for Close-Up in association with IndiBlogger.