A Cup of Tea

“It was the worst movie I’ve ever seen”, he complained as they walked out of the theatre. “Disgusting, propagandist, and pseudo to the core”. He couldn’t contain himself once he started.

“It’s just a movie. Why are you overreacting”, she asked, bemused at his reaction. “See it, enjoy it, forget it”.

“I can’t you know”, he said, still seething. “I feel strongly about these things”.

She took him by his hand and led him to the crowded food court. It was a weekend evening and the place was teeming with people. Ladies garishly dressed, men wearing clothes they ought not wear. Noisy children running about making pests of themselves whilst their parents obviously didn’t care. Thousands of plastic bags flaunting high end brands all over the mall. “It’s another way of making money”, he snarled. “If they were so concerned about the environment they’d make paper bags instead of charging for the plastic ones”, he fumed.

“Will you just relax”, she said looking right into his eyes, as she gently placed her hand on his.

She knew what ticked him off and what didn’t. He felt deeply about things and hence got affected by them more easily than most others. She knew him. Understood him. She knew when to keep quiet and let him rant, helping him vent out his feelings, and when to make him stop. She was the one solace he had in a tough unfair world.

He got up abruptly and walked towards the tea stall. His ginger tea and her latte. Constants in their lives, like each other. He carried both the cups and sat down opposite her. She looked at him and smiled. “Aren’t you hungry? Should I get some snacks”, she smiled at him and asked, whilst picking her mug up to take a sip.

“Naah. I overdid the popcorn bit in the theatre” he said, not looking at her but instead fiddling with his cup. She waited for him to say more, but he remained silent.

“Ok now, out with it. I know it’s not just the movie. There’s something bothering you and I want you to tell me. Don’t keep it bottled up inside”. She finally exploded, unable to keep her cool which she was finding hard to maintain all evening.

He was taken aback by the sudden change in her tone. He recognised the seriousness when she sounded like this. “I don’t know. I…I just don’t feel right. About anything. About everything”, he blurted. “I am unhappy. I can’t seem to find peace. I feel as if I’m sinking and taking you along with me too. And you don’t deserve this. To be stuck with me here in a meaningless relationship”. He knew he should have stopped a while back, but couldn’t do so.

“Did you just say meaningless”, she said, looking at him directly in the eyes as she slowly pulled her hand away from his. Her eyes did the rest of the talking, in the midst of that awkward long silence. Suddenly it seemed the food court too had become silent.

The noise in the food court which seemed to have abated started again as two people sitting there were involved in a life altering conversation. He realised he was losing her. She knew her level of patience had been breached. She couldn’t go on this way any longer.

She wiped her eyes swiftly with a tissue paper, placed it back on the table as she got up. She picked her bag up looked at him one last time and turned around. His head hung, looking vacantly at his tea up as he felt her walking away from the table. From his life. He knew he’d lost her forever.

He sat there for a long time after that. With that undrunk cup of tea. Half hoping she’d come back, half lost in his own thoughts.

“Come on darling let’s go, we will get late for the movie”, the voice startled her, bringing her back to the present day from her thoughts of the past. She looked up and saw the loving rotund jolly man she had married six years ago. He gave her no cause to complain,loved her selflessly, took care of her dedicatedly. Her life now seemed complete.

Love? That was a thing of the past. She now felt grateful. Her life was now about understanding and fulfilling. Sometimes we can love inexplicably without reason and without logic. And yet at times we are unable to love despite all the reasons being there. Today she realised what those lines, that she had once read in a book, meant.

She took his hand as she got up. “Let’s go for the movie”, she smiled, leaving her latte on the table just like that solitary cup of tea which was left behind at the adjacent table.

Copyright (c) Pratik Majumdar