Lunch

It has been exactly a year, two months and five days since the first time I met her. Before you think I am someone who is obsessed with dates, let me tell you why I remember. No stop assuming that I am some kind of psycho stalker; it was on her sister's birthday that I met her. A quick look scroll through my desk calender, a bit of backwards counting and voila, the amount of time since the first time my eyes met hers.

Allow me to let you in on a little something about me. I am a punctual man. Well most of the time anyways. Not so during that blazing hot Tuesday morning. The night before it was raining heavily thus leading to an overflowed drain pipe on the road I usually use to get to work. In the end I resorted to use the KTM (train) on that day. True to it's name, Keretapi Tanah Melayu, was very Melayu with it's timing. In other words, late. A full twelve minutes off the supposed arrival time. (Okay, maybe I am a little bit obsessed with numbers). Thanks to it's amoeba like speed and the sporadic stops it took along the way, I was running late. Around thirty minutes off my usual arrival time when I reached my train stop, and it was still a twenty minute walk to the office. I am always an hour early to office to grab a hassle free breakfast.

I opted to take the bus instead as a) the road was clear b) the train was free and c) air-conditioner. In my mind, I would have reached the office earlier and sweat-free so I lined up to get on the bus. Luckily on that day, the bus was less packed than usual (probably due to the weather condition yesterday) and luckier still I got a seat beside the window. Unknown to me then, that faithful day would be my luckiest day of the year as it was the first time I met my future bride.

As I took my seat, I opened my seasoned canvas office bag and took out my earphones. I connected it to my phone and just when I was about to plug them into my ears, a woman tapped my shoulder. "Can I sit here?" she asked in a polite manner. I looked up at the woman who wore a plain black suit, ruffled white top and lilac hijab which adorned her sweet face. I nodded with a slight creepy smile I felt plastered on my face. She sat and without thinking about it, I rolled up my earphones and looked out the window, feeling my face turning slightly pink. The bus started moving.

Halfway through the journey, the bus took a sudden sharp turn and a book fell on my lap. It was a thick book titled "The Book Thief". I picked up the book and looked at the woman with the lilac hijab. She apologised with what seemed to be a thousand ''sorrys'' accompanied by an extremely embarrassed look across her face. I said it was fine and asked about the book. She gave an exceptionally long description of the book which lasted till the bus reached my office building. The whole time I was looking straight at her marginally tired eyes which was dark brown like most typical Malays but somehow seemed shiny. An odd contrast to her slightly darken eye bags but very attractive nonetheless. 

Surprisingly enough, she stood up before me and said she it was her stop. I replied with "This is my stop too, shall we?" and gestured to the door like a gentleman. We walked quietly to the building and to the lifts. She pressed the button on the left side of the lifts whilst I pressed the button on the right. Her lift arrived first and waved me goodbye. Just as the she entered and turned around I asked, "What's your name?"

"Alisya," she said with a foxy smile and the door closed. I waited for a moment and looked at floor number. Ten.

P.S. I lied, it was a year, two months and six days. You should learn to trust people less dear reader.