A Glass of Wine and Long Island Iced Tea

I kept staring at the chandelier, the way it reflected it’s light all across the hall. A few more chandeliers in the room doing what exactly the one above me was doing, but I didn’t bother about the rest. It was like how in a Bollywood number, we look at the actor or the actress rather than the background dancers who are doing the same steps. I had a glass of wine with me and was trying to get the smell of it and move the glass around, just to make others feel that , ‘I knew my wine’. But trust me I had no idea. The color of wine shined in the presence of the chandelier which was the reason I noticed it at the first place. Looking over at the crowd that was dining a top notch dinner, I was waiting for a special person and our table to be ready.

Right then, a girl in a wine red cocktail dress, a high pony and black stilettos just walked past by me as I kept sipping my wine. She sat couple of seats ahead of me and moved the strands of her hair behind her ears, waiting for her table, maybe waiting for someone. I always found the act of moving the strands of hair back, behind their ears spellbinding. She ordered a Long Island Iced Tea and I kept smelling and sipping my wine. She just dropped in a smile towards me and I returned the favor.

“Is it just the light of the chandeliers or you look as beautiful as you do now?” I said to her with a smile and moved a place closer.

“No, I always do”, she said with a laugh.

“I have a feeling I’ve seen you somewhere before?”

“Even I do”

“I think it must be in some beauty pageant”

“Oh, is it. Sorry you must have seen someone else then”

“Shit. Anyways you must try it sometime. You’re going to win for sure”

“Yeah, as if”

“I’m serious”

“By the way, did you study at Xavier’s?”

“No, why?”

“There were really hot and good looking guys there, back when I was studying at Laboulaye’s”

“Aha”

“Yeah”, she laughed.

“By the way, I’m Raj”

“Ok, wait- I hate DDLJ”

“My name is not Raj, then”

“I’m just kidding. My name is not Simran”

“Good for you”

“Do you actually know your wine or you’re just acting like you do?”

“What? I’m a wine connoisseur. This wine right here, Cabernet Sauvignon. It’s a dry wine with a, you know a hit of vanilla and you get the taste of green pepper”

“Ok baba, you know your wine”

“Let’s change the topic; what do you want to talk about?”

“Anything but wine”

“Love? Sex?”

“What about them?”

“Could there be something between us. Instant connection- Love at first sight”

“Live in after that”

“Yeah, maybe”

“Let me not get your hopes too high. I’m tempted to show you my middle finger when you talk like this, but as of now I’m going to settle for the finger next to it”, she said showing her ring finger of her left hand.

“Engaged”, I said hitting my heart making an expression as if I was in agony listening to her news and pointed my ring finger too, “I’m also married, dear”

“So sad, I really thought there was something between, a spark”, she said in a dramatic way, with a laugh at the end.

“Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna on the cards for us??” I said with my sexy look.

“Now I’m not going to hesitate” and she said fuck off by displaying her middle finger and lip movements.

“Ok, ok forget about that. What does a guy mean when he says that - ‘Nobody can love you the way I do’ “

“You’re the guy, you must know”

“I think that’s what every girl might want to listen. When he says, in his mind he might be like thinking what to say? What to say? And he says this out, even if he might not feel so. Because clearly that’s impossible- how does he define this love that he is talking about? Is it the way he cares for her? Is it things he would do for her? Is it the sex?”

“Maybe he just knows. There is no definition for it. That’s why everyone says it’s complicated. It differs from every person, differs in between people and differs towards different people. Its better you don’t define maybe. That’s why the girl maybe just believes his words when he says that because even she isn’t sure”

“Do you always speak like this? Ya aaj kuch special hai?”

“Maybe it’s the Long Island Iced Tea”

“You know the thing that’s more complicated is expressing love at times, when you have to use lines like the one I mentioned earlier. I feel it becomes complicated because we are connected to people through different relations. Maybe it might disturb the equilibrium or the steady state we have in our life. Getting control back takes a hell lot of time. So we let our lives run in the old steady state, even if the outcomes are restricted, there is peace”

“Are you an engineer?”

“Yeah, a pretty bad one”

“I can get that”

We both laughed.

“Here she comes, the love of my life”, I hugged her. “Meet my wife”, I said. “This here is not Simran”

“Sanaya”, she introduced herself.

We all smiled.

“Dear, our table’s ready. I’ll just be there in a sec”

She left to the table.

“Love marriage?” she asked with excitement.

“Yeah, why would I run in the old steady state while I can make a lot more profit by trying to control in a new steady state”

“Haha, engineer’s”, she said with a laugh.

“Nice talking to you, I’ll be off. Enjoy your Long Island Iced Tea and have a great life ahead”

“Same to you”

                                                                                                    ***                         

“Why did you introduce me as your wife??”

“Just for fun”

“You and your games and theories”, his friend said.

***

“Hope he didn’t see me switching the ring between my fingers”, she thought.

***