James watched from a distance as Anna carefully locked her front door, while the strange man stood patiently waiting beside her, on the front porch of her house.
James had had to park his vehicle suddenly, and just a few blocks away from Anna’s building, the moment he sighted her and the man come out of her front door.
It had been three weeks, since he last saw Anna – the girl of his dreams and his one and only crush – because she had been on a two-weeks work leave.
Meanwhile, the fact that he was sitting in his car watching her step into another car with a man, on her birthday, when he had made plans for her, was very painful to not just his eyes, but to his heart as well.
He had summoned the nerves, despite his shy persona, to surprise her at home on what he and other colleagues of theirs at work, knew was her birthday – on the 18th of March 2018.
The rumours had been all over the office that very morning that it was Anna's birthday, but prior to the D-day she had insisted she didn’t want any celebration.
But James on hearing the gist had thought to himself, “What young and sweet girl wouldn’t want a celebration of some sorts on her birthday, or an outing with friends or a special someone on her special day?”
With that thought in mind, James had decided he’d surprise her at home, with gifts, and a flower, and perhaps convince her to go out to dinner with him – after all, it was her birthday.
So, it was surprising for him to drive to her house, and while approaching her building three-houses away, he saw her exiting her front door with a strange but good looking fellow.
She hadn’t looked down the street to her left; if she had, she may have sighted the car and perhaps recognized that he was the one parked by the curb.
Three weeks ago, he had been fortunate to drop Anna off at home, after work; as it was raining heavily, and other colleagues with personal cars weren’t going Anna’s way that night. Luckily for him, he offered to drive her home, and she accepted his offer.
The ride to her home that evening was a pleasant one; as they both chatted all the way and got to know themselves better, even though they had been colleagues for about four months, prior to that day.
James had always admired Anna. She was one of the four female engineers in the company, with an office in the top floor of the Lancelot Engineering Building Complex. She was beautiful and nothing short of charming, and she was quite a friendly colleague too.
James and Anna were office neighbors at work. Anna’s cubicle was to his left, while his friend and colleague, Brian, was his cubicle neighbour on the right.
From stories he had heard at work, at one point or the other, lots of guys had asked her out already, but they all got rebuffed by the beautiful but reserved damsel.
James had joined the Lancelot Engineering firm where they all worked, only four months earlier. However, both Anna and Brian had been at the company for a longer period - a year and nine months, and three years; respectively.
A few weeks after joining the company, James had fallen for Anna’s charm. But seeing as she was always the belle of the ball at work, he had always kept a distance – a decision he’d come to regret as he sat in his car.
With a sense of unease, with a flower bouquet on the front passenger seat beside him, and wrapped gifts in the back seat – while watching the movie in front of him; starring Anna and a male companion zooming off in a car – James felt a sense of foreboding.
He had grown fund of her after the night he dropped her off. And even though she liked and often welcomed his companionship whenever they were at work, James had never really followed up the blossoming closeness they were developing, with a direct move or expression of interest towards her.
As he sat there, staring at the disappearing car, which was taking his beloved Anna away from him on a day that he had made plans to shower her with TLC [*] – he was left wondering and chastising himself.
Had he missed his chance at asking his dream girl out? Was the fellow with whom she drove off, her man? Was he too late already in her life? Should he chase after them, and perhaps surprise or crash (more like, gate crash) the young man’s outing with Anna?
With so many “shoulda-woulda-coulda” running through James’ mind, he turned his gaze to the flowers he had bought for Anna laying on the front passenger seat, just beside him. Still starring at the beautiful flora, he roared his car engine to life and engaged his gear into ‘drive’ mode……
*TLC - Tender Love & Care
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