Tears in Autumn

The intern cried out.

"She is here!"

All attention was on her. Ron was surprised that she was there amongst the crowd. He thought that the last thing she wanted was to be near him.

They stood face to face from a distance for he was on the podium and she was somewhere in the audience. She left the room limping as fast as she could.

Ron followed her and when they were outside the building, he told her that he wished none of it had happened.

"Ok." She said.

"Please, Lily, can we be friends? I really mean it. I do treasure our friendship. My research is nothing compared to you. You are the only thing which matters in my life. You are the light that shines for me. You are in my waking hours and in my dreams." He said.

"You have betrayed my trust." She said.

He looked downcast.

"I regret my actions so much. I wish I could turn back time." He said.

"You used me." She said.

"I did out of a curiosity for you but along the way, I started to become compromised in my objectivity. I feel like I am everything that you are. I feel when I am with you, you understand me. You really listen to me. You make me feel light. You arouse a spark in me which I thought existed no more." He said.

"And I hope that I am able to make you feel a little of what I feel." He said.

She said nothing, looked at him, afraid.

"I have begun to love you." He said.

"Nonsense!" She said, slapping his face real hard.

The impact made him step back.

"Never ever disturb me again." She said, quietly.

"I will not disturb you again but you can't tell me not to love you." He said.

"Suit yourself." She said.

"Nothing is going to stop me from getting my regular coffee." He continued.

"I won't serve you any coffee." She said.

"Fair enough. I don't come for the coffee. I come for you." He said.

She was on the verge of crying. Controlling emotions took a lot of effort. She felt its waves in volumes. It came and went like the tide. Only that it was an incoming tide which could not be held back.

"I'm opening up my heart to you, Lily." He said.

"I am incapable of love, and so are you. I am as cold as ice, have you not seen and felt that?" She asked.

"That's not true. You know that. I know you feel a great deal. Let me share your feelings, or at least a part of it." He said.

She did not say anything.

"I would like to be your friend again, nothing more then." He continued.

She looked at him, knowing that she was betraying herself. She wanted him too, she had loved him all this while. She let him come closer to her. Instinctively he put his arms about her back.

"Shall I walk you to the station?" He asked.

He offered his arm like he used to months ago.

"I'll wait till your train comes and then I'll go." He said.

"Ok." She said.

In actuality, since the day at his office, she had found words similar to "ok" but with him, it was difficult to use them for he compromised her thought pattern.

He did wait for her train and the many trains in the following month amidst lots of coffee and conversation. It was not exactly animated conversation but it was enough to make both their hearts flutter and their spirits meet on a plane where unspoken words thrived into tenderness which floated into their hearts.

One day, after she had closed up the coffee joint, just as he held out his arm, she spoke.

"But...isn't it easier for the both of us if you drove me back?" She asked, trying to be bold.

A beacon of hope appeared before him. He smiled now. She looked a little shy and smiled too, upon seeing him smile. Hand in hand, they headed towards his car. That winter was mercilessly cold with frequent storms, yet for the both of them, the sun seemed to shine a little brighter and the cold delightfully heart-warming. He came to cherish her more each passing day and he knew that she loved him more than the words that she would not say. Eventually they moved in together to a new house.

On their first night together in a house they could truly call theirs, she had whispered in his ear for the first time.

"I love you." She said, looking into his eyes.

"I think I had already known." Came his loving reply.

"So much it hurts." She said.

"Oh my darling, love need not hurt." He said.

She gazed at him; now she saw the unmissable depth of passion in the blue in his eyes. There was a fiery tenderness in his eyes.

"How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, that has such people in it." She had whispered; crushing her lips against his cheeks.

"I am here for you in our brave new world." He said, lifting her face so that she faced him.

They acknowledged then that the story of their love was full of passion and drama; just like the old bard Shakespeare's Tempest, only that now they had come to an agreement of sorts that it was not an unnecessary waste of time to indulge in love. Far from it. Love was magical and eternal. The love they shared was a garden which grew every single day.

It came to a point when she rose in the early hours of dawn, and upon gazing at his sleepy face, she tells him every time he wakes up, "I love you. So much."

He spreads out his arms, captures her tight in his embrace, telling her, "Am I not the lucky one?"

Spring was now making its way underneath the snowy earth. Buds of spring were perking up the ground - the first signs of greenery; a present from Mother Earth.