rose

ROSE

She had always hated roses ever since she could remember. Right from her childhood when every girl used to wear one on her hair, to the dark red buds some of the boys in her neighbourhood tried to woo her with. There was something about their stiff, proud shapes that she detested. They seemed so cold and aloof with their intricate whorls curved within each other-a world into themselves. They didn’t make themselves likeable anyway with their thorns, she had never managed to hold a rose without being pricked by one.

She had hated her art teacher who had insisted on the class painting a still life with a vase full of roses. They were the toughest to paint and the most likely to look unnatural. Anyway what was so natural about a vase full of flowers anyway? She had never understood why anyone would kill flowers by plucking them from the garden and putting them in their living rooms with some water, it was like murdering a person and giving them IV fluid to make them look “fresh.”

She looked at the bouquet of rose flowers that Samar had sent, again. Last evening, he had cancelled their date yet again and she had told him it was over. He had been calling every hour since then and had finally sent these roses. They had been together for two years and this was how much he knew her? She had blocked and deleted his number immediately.

Now she had to do something with these roses. Samar had sent them to her office. Throwing them in the trash would prompt a lot of questions from her friends and colleagues, which she didn’t want to answer. She picked up the flowers and headed out of her office, towards the entrance of the building.

“Hi Simran! Wow! Lovely bouquet. From your boyfriend?” said a man. He was from another office and she had seen him a few times in the canteen. She couldn’t believe she had never noticed that smile before or the heady, musky smell of his perfume.

“No, I ...” she started. She looked around trying to avoid his eyes. “No, I don’t have a boyfriend. Actually my friends are decorating the lobby for Diwali. I just got some red roses for them. The red petals will look really beautiful in water. With the floating diyas they would look divine.”

“Wow! You are so creative! I would really like to help you guys. Maybe we can get some coffee after that?” he said

“Oh that’s ok. I’ll just give the roses to them, they are decorating on the other side. Why don’t you wait for me at Joe’s Café? I’ll met you there,” she said.

Simran barely breathed till he was a couple of metres away from the building. She tossed the flowers in a dustbin and headed towards the door to join him.

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