Honey! Its too late

Continuation from "Honey! Are you ok?" which is continued from Honey! Lets Break Up.

I have been trying to find a way how to say that I want to break up with her. And here she is asking me the question straight at my face. Now I don’t know what to say.

“What?” was all I could respond.
“Do you like me or not?”
“What are you talking about?” I tried to keep a puzzled face.
“I can’t see you like this anymore. Do you think I haven’t noticed you?” She asked.
So you have been noticing all this time but never said anything was all I could think of.
But I kept the same words to her. “What are you talking about?”
Its really interesting to think that you know what you have to say but you don’t say it for reasons that you don’t know. I was not able to say anything to her.
This time, I really tried hard to look puzzled. Anyone who would have seen my face would consider that Mr. Bean has a handsome face.
“Don’t lie to me”
“Seriously, why are you asking these stupid things” I tried to laugh.
“Do you think asking “Do you like me?” is STUPID?” She shouted.
That made me silent. I can’t talk aloud now.
“No. what I mean is...” I tried to talk.
“Do you think I am stupid just blabbing all the time”, she was furious.
“Of course not” I tried to keep an innocent face. But it’s not working.
“Then tell me, whats wrong?” she was stubborn.
I didn’t know what to say. The service guy kept the croissant and Tropical Iceberg on the table and left. I dragged the Tropical iceberg towards me and started to stir it analyzing it. She was still looking at me and I was looking at the iceberg. She was not ready to give up and so was I. I want to know how the Tropical iceberg was made. She repeated her question as if I didn’t hear her before.
“Do you love me or not?”.
That is an excellent question. It made me recall the scene from Spiderman 2 when Mary Jane asks Peter “Do you love me or not?”. And I remember that a car will come crashing into the restaurant. I suddenly got scared. Is this some kind of Déjà vu. I just turned around to see if there are any cars outside. None I could see. Little relaxed, I turned back and found her still staring at me. I choose to analyze the iceberg again. Was this named after the iceberg that hit the Titanic? I felt pain in my eyes. It was like my eyes were burning. And I know the reason. She was staring at me. I should do something or else, she will burn me with her eyes.
I can see the ice cubes in the Tropical iceberg melting.
I must tell something to her. But I don’t know what to say. All the preparations I had made all the way evaporated away leaving me still thinking what to say instead of how to say.

At this point, someone came and sat next to her. Before I could object, he spoke. “Hi there.” He was wearing a T-shirt and jeans and looked exactly like me. First confused but then I realized it must be my soul. But aren’t souls supposed to be wearing white. Is this some day that the souls are allowed to wear casuals. May be it got dirty. And then it started talking to me as they talk in all those movies.

(For your understanding here, my soul would be talking in Italics.)
“Come on. Tell her that you don’t love her. Tell her that you are dumping her” She was still staring at me.
May be I could toss a coin to determine what to say. No. I am never good at coin toss. But what will I wish for. That’s the biggest question for me. I got confused.
I said “of course.... of course I love you”

My soul was not happy at all. It was shaking its head and was advising me again. “What are you talking idiot. You know what you have to say. Don’t waste this opportunity.”
“Really?” She asked doubtfully.
“Go ahead. Tell her that you don’t like her”
I don’t know what to say. Do I love her or not? It was a question I don’t know the answer.
“Yeah! I love you. What are you talking about?” I said.

“No! No! You are not making any sense. Tell her the truth. You have practicing to say it for many months. Now don’t screw it up.”

“Really, there is nothing” I shook my shoulders as if there isn’t anything to worry about.
“Are you sure, you are ok?” She persisted but with a hope in her eyes.
”Please, I beg you. Tell her. Don’t think that she will cry. Let her cry. Tell her”
“I mean... yeah. whats the problem. What are you.. worried about?”
“Then why were you acting weird all this time. Why weren’t you calling me for such a long time?”
“That’s because he don’t want to talk with you”
My soul was telling her which she obviously couldn’t hear. How advantageous it is that your soul can talk only to you as if the communication has been encrypted and a Virtual Private Network tunnel has been established between you and your soul alone!
I couldn’t answer that. I kept staring at the Tropical iceberg.
“Why didn’t you bother to tell me that you are promoted? I had to find it out from someone else.”
Now who is that &@%&^@#@$&$ who told her about the promotion, is all that I was wondering. Obviously someone has been spying on me. My secret base has been infiltrated and I wanted to know who that is.
I kept staring at the drink while she kept on questioning me why, why and why.
I kept my face down looking into the drink liking a school kid not answering any of the questions that the teacher asks hoping that the teacher will get bored and leave after sometime. We used to call it as the Ahimsa treatment. So I was doing the same to her. Whatever she asked, I would just stare at the drink occasionally shaking my head or moving my shoulders saying no.
“Why is that you didn’t even care to tell me that you were going on a tour last week?”
And then it hit me. My analysis on the iceberg was complete. There were 12 ice cubes in the drink. With each ice cube of size 1 cubic inch size, it would leave a space of only 100 ml of drink in the cup. I had been paying 40 rupees for 100ml of plain coffee. I had been cheated by Coffee Day all this time.
“Stop trying to solve the world economy you dumbo. Come back to the real world”, my soul started to scold me again.
But I am such a person who never listens to the soul.
”Nothing. I said nothing. I am fine”, I assured her.
”Honey, are you ok?” She asked again.
“Yeah” I replied.
“Are you happy between us?” she asked again. Her eyes were probing to find any uncertainty within me.
”Do you want me to say no?” I acted defensive to her question. I know she don’t want me to answer no.
”of course not. I love you too”
“Then what?” I raised my voice. Best way of defense is offense. And it helped me well.
I could see a small smile on her face.
”is it?” she joked.
”what……Yeah!” I tried to look honest.
My soul was completely broken. It stood up and swore bad at me that even I have never swore at anyone like that before and went off in a puff.

She was still looking into my eyes, but it was cooler. I always how can girl’s eyes can become red hot as well as cool breeze anytime they want. Its as if though they have a temperature regulator fitted in their eyes.
”I really love you.” I reassured her.
She was smiling well. “Me too”, she said.
”I was really busy... you know. I didn’t have even for myself. I mean.... I couldn’t spend time for yourself.. I mean.. for you” I was stammering trying to catch words from the air.
Its always hard for me to lie without proper preparations. And combined with her cool eyes, its hard even to talk anything different from truth.
I looked into her eyes and said “I assure you, there is nothing wrong”
“Are you sure, you are ok?”
“So you don’t believe me?” I asked her.
”Of course, I believe you” She was laughing now.
”I really really love you”. I said again. I didn’t know whether I was lying or telling the truth.
”okay....” She replied still looking at me.
”What okay? What else to say?”
She smiled. “I am sorry I asked you like that. I was just afraid about you?”
“Don’t worry. Your boy friend is not bewitched by any beautiful witches.”
She laughed and then put her hands on mine and smiled “I love you too”.

”okay okay.” I couldn’t take any more. “ Enough of this. Lets go somewhere” I said and got up to leave.
My soul was no where to be seen. May be it went inside me again.
”No. It’s ok. It’s already late” she resisted.
”No way. We are going to the ice-cream parlor now. So lets go soon.” I continued.
”Honey! Its too late. We can go some other day.”

I took her hands and dragged her from the chair and we walked towards the exit.
She gave up at last and came along. When we reached the door, she again resisted and pulled away her hands from me all of a sudden.
I was not ready to give up and pulled her again and tried to go out of the door pulling her. Interested more on taking her out, I didn’t notice the family who were trying to enter through the door which I have been blocking for sometime. The old person who was standing outside patted my shoulders and I moved aside still holding her hands. She was trying everyway to escape from my hold. The old person was still standing outside and tapped me again. I was wondering if he wanted me to move away and then I saw him pointing to my hand angrily. He was asking me to leave her hand. I also got angry and would have shouted at him “Mind your own business ......” had it not been for her to pull away from my grasp and shout “That’s my dad”! Hearing that, luckily, I didn’t faint. I just fell off backwards crashing on the table behind and breaking my arms.

Its been exactly six years since that event happened. My daughter came to me trying to look into the notebook wondering what I am smiling about. “What are you reading daddy?” she asked. “Hmm... a moral story honey!” was all I could tell her. She looked beautiful right like her mom. “So what is the moral of the story daddy?” she asked curiously. My wife had been telling her moral stories at nights.
I thought for a while and sighed “The moral is.... The squeaky wheel gets the grease”
She looked confused and asked “What does it mean daddy?”
“It means Speak when you have to” and for me “Speak whats in your mind when you have to”.
She still couldn’t understand it. She turned around and ran out of the room and the dog with my name followed her still barking “Bow bow”. It hasn’t learnt English yet.