Chapter II

“Look, we brought you two closer. We deserve a party for the effort we are doing”.
The soft sunlight played hide and seek in one winter afternoon. The wind blew softly through the trees singing the afternoon song. The symphony of the song mixed with the chatter of the people added a new aroma to the music. It was lunch time and people have just started flooding the canteen. Of all the things in the world, food is a religiously followed on time. As usual Neil was out with his colleagues for lunch. While his colleagues were busy trying to decide what to eat, he was on the lookout for a perfect spot for “bird-watching”. As they all settled in their seats around the table with their food plates, they get into conversations discussing about the office melodrama and sometimes about politics.
Under the cacophony of multitudes, an image caught his eye. As the words that left him started faded, the world went silent for him. He sunk slowly in the world surreal as his eyes trailed her through the crowd. It took a while for him to get back to real world, while the other people just stared at him blankly. He had everyone engrossed in his conversation when he just trailed off midway. He also forgot what he was telling. “What happened next?”, his colleague asked him to get him back on the series of events he was explaining. “What happened when?”, he said feeling completely confused about what they were even asking about. “I just lost her”, was the only thought running though his mind right then. It didn’t take much for others to realize what just happened. Everyone has in one way or the other been in similar shoes. He kept searching for her but she was just lost in the crowd.
In the week that followed he had seen her a couple of times and finally figured her lunch time. What happened next was the whole group adjusted their time-table to align with the new timetable. The ritual they followed everyday apart from having lunch at a specific time was a after-lunch walk. It was important part of the curriculum. The group had not yet seen her. This one particular day while she was walking to the canteen, he spotted her and signaled the others the she was walking with her group dressed in black. What he didn’t see coming was the whole group of 8 people turned their heads to know the mystery lady who paced the heartbeats of their dear friend. That was real awkward and he believes that at the moment she realized that some guys were watching her. From that he has just tried stay casual and not to give any impression that one of the guy is hitting on her. Everyday the lunch time starts with searching her and finding a place to her, probably the adjacent table or anyone that in the line of sight.
This one day, as he didn’t spot her in the canteen, he selected a random empty table and get comfortable in his seat while his colleagues were at the counter waiting for their order. Meanwhile two more of his friends joined Neil at the table and they just started off with the lunch as they had lunch boxes with them. Meanwhile, the mystery lady makes her presence known as she goes to the counter while her friends chose a table at the far end of the canteen which is way too far from the one Neil and his gang was sitting at. While his colleagues returned with their plates to the table and realized that she was sitting at the far end of the canteen, instead of sitting at the already chosen-seated table by Neil, they just made their way to the table just next to her. The canteen was completely empty per say and Neil insisted that he won’t move over there because that would just give the impression that he had been trying to hide-not hide. The other five members sat there and they called out to Neil and the two others to join the table. With a little huffing and puffing, he put the lunch back in the box and made his way to the table. The other part of the change in table also included that he would be sitting at the far end of the table which is just beside her.
“Look, we brought you two closer. We deserve a party for the effort we are doing”, said the one who had insisted on changing the table. That was the awkward 20 minutes for Neil while he ate the food with his head down. Though he didn’t do anything wrong, he was one of the decent bunch. Now they everyone has helped them get close, in some way, the next task was : Project Phoenix – Find her name . This might sound too dumb but Phoenix is the name of the project she was working in.