The Text Book

The Text Book

She had borrowed his text book. He was waiting for this day. He was waiting for her to talk to him. He hoped she would text him to say ‘Thank you.’ From ‘Thank You’ the story would continue and she will eventually say ‘I love you.’ He had slipped his phone number in a piece of paper in his textbook. He waited the entire day, she did not text. After two days, she returned the text book to him. It was the last year of college. If this love story does not start here, she will go away somewhere else and get married. He looked at her. She was talking on the phone. ‘Her phone is working fine, yet she did not text. The way she answered all the questions in the class today meant she had flipped through all the pages of the textbook. Yet she did not call me.’ He got his answer. She never loved him. Exams were over. Students moved to their desired job profiles. She too left the town.
Days passed into weeks and then months and then years. He never saw her again. She seemed to have left the town for good.
Ten years later, he suddenly saw her in town. He went near her and said ‘Hi, do you remember me?’ She replied in a sombre tone, ‘I have never forgotten you.’ He asked, ‘Why did you leave me then?’. She smiled and said, ‘You never asked me to stay back.’ Raged and shocked, he replied, ‘You read my note and still did not text me or call me. Now you are telling me that I let you go.’ She replied calmly, ‘I had written a note and put back in the textbook saying “I can’t call you or text you because this phone belongs to my dad. If you wish to talk to me, let’s catch up on lunch break.” You never came. I was sure then that you never had feelings for me. So I left.’ He stood there frozen. He had not flipped through the text book even once. He had just read the notes he had for the examination. He rushed home, found his textbook and flipped through the pages. There it was, the note. If only he had read his textbook that day, today she would have been with him and not away from him.