if only if

He has a slight stubble on his face, a never-ceasing smile on his lips; and a slight silent hint of adoration, when he looks at her from the corner of his eyes.
He looks at her, expecting nothing but a hello; for who but he knows that she talks a lot, but is not saying.

He walks next to her, as if the road next to the one which she treads upon be his. He walks besides her, always. Sometimes behind her, sometimes ahead but hearing her footsteps; her faltering, dancing half-hopping, half-walking footsteps; her clumsy self keeps missing the step and slipping all the time. He knows those footsteps well enough now, they walked a lot together. Together but never holding hands; sometimes their bodies touched, their glances held each other, but he looked away always. It never mattered much, for there was always a lot to talk about and whenever they ran out of things to talk about they always found something or the other to gorge on.

Nothing was different today.

He never misses an expression; the smiles, the frowns, the look of awe and the hint of wrath. She was the cloud, ready to burst at times…promising sunny afternoons later on.

Knowing just when she was enticed by that bookstore, his eyes followed her when she maneuvered into that filled- to-brim bookstore that promised a good bargain. His eyes held her still when she came out with a frown saying that it was not good enough. He smiled at her. He would not let her out of his sight, how can he, nowadays he just did not see her enough. It was never enough.

A shade of jealousy spread over his face when he saw her half-flirtingly joke with that other guy; he immediately smiled realizing his folly. He looked at her. Did she notice that? She did, didn’t she? Well, she always does. Their eyes met, they always smiled it away

.

She could be his, his to call. But he was someone else’s since forever, for forever.

They were bound in silence, or so he supposed.

Drunk lived felt and read in the umpteen coffee outings, unplanned local train escapades, NFAK’s and Alchemies.

She was a nut-case. He was the nut and the case.

P.S. I like the Valentine’s Day. Just as I like fairy tales and love stories.