The Rooftop Cafe : A Quiet Love Affair

They meet at their favorite cafe. A beautiful rooftop cafe overlooking a picturesque view of a uniform blend of lush green trees and scattered white villas. It has a quiet and calm ambiance which is surprising because the cafe is situated at the heart of a busy, bustling and chaotic neighborhood infested by round the clock heavy traffic, cars and buses honking away and a noisy marketplace.

Yet somehow, this little cafe seemed to be a sanctuary untouched by the chaos surrounding it. Undisturbed by the humdrum and the mad rush of the world around. Just like the cafe, theirs was a love that was immune to the chaotic world around them.

May be that’s why they related to the place so much. They sit across a bamboo coffee table facing each other. He gazes unabashedly at her beautiful face which was looking more radiant than usual.

May be because his gaze was making her fair cheeks blush to a natural pink complexion. Or was it just the effect of the daylight?

Out of shyness, she was finding it difficult to make eye contact with him. She would quickly lower her gaze and look away smiling shyly as soon as their eyes met. As if his eyes were the sun at which she couldn’t look directly for more than a second. He on the other hand was thoroughly enjoying the whole thing. Her shyness was one of the things he enjoyed the most about her. He found it immensely endearing.

He noticed the beautiful earrings she was wearing, dangling from her earlobes halfway to her white, smooth neck. He had a way of looking at her brazenly, without any trace of shame, which made her heart flutter. He looked at her with an assured confidence, taking in every detail of her beauty, in an unhurried laid back fashion. His gaze lingered for a moment on her tender, slightly quivering lips and rested upon the locks of her thick, lush hair falling beautifully on her shoulders. She could feel his warm gaze upon her body. She felt as though he was touching her all over with that gaze.

It had been quite a while now since they arrived at the café but they had barely spoken a few sentences to each other. There was a deep silence that engulfed them. Not an awkward, uncomfortable silence but a silence which was comfortable, beautiful yet pregnant with unspoken feelings and emotions.

They were at a stage in their relationship where silence becomes more beautiful than words. They were communicating, yet they were not talking. They didn’t need words to communicate anymore. Or, one could say that words were no longer adequate to describe what they felt for each other. It was as if they met in a different world altogether. A world which was just theirs. Where no other being could reach. And in that world, language and words lose all meaning and purpose. It is their secret world of beautiful silence. Pristine like the surface of a still, undisturbed lake.

A Cup Of Tea

The waiter brings their order : a single cup of tea.

This was one of their things. They always ordered and shared a single cup of tea, coffee or a single bowl of ice-cream. It was like an unspoken intimate ritual between them. Characteristically, she took the first sip after taking a whiff of the aroma and savored the taste between her tongue and palate, her eyes half closed and face tilted slightly upwards in what looked like an expression of pure bliss.

He watched intently and smiled. She caught him watching her and blushed even more, feeling slightly shy about her unceremonious display of pleasure. She pushed the cup towards him. He took the cup, gave it a halfway turn, and sipped right where her lips had touched it. She felt as though she was being kissed.

He started to talk about random stuff related to work and life, as if to bring themselves back to this world. She listened. But throughout their entire conversation, one thing remained undisturbed. Their silence. As if the words that were being spoken were an unnecessary piece of extra clothing when one is already covered. Both of them felt it. Both of them knew it. But it didn’t bother either of them. Words had long since lost their power over their silence. No amount of words were capable of stirring their beautiful silence anymore. So they just sat there, enjoying their silence. Basking in the ecstasy of each other’s presence which was invisible to the rest of the world.