Like Paper to Flame

"Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion is starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there – fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends......" 

She smiled, every time she watched the opening sequence of Love Actually. Her extensive travels across the country meant hundreds of flights every month. Every time she walked out of an airport, there would only be a board with her name on it. The carrier really didn't care who the name stood for. Nobody had ever come to pick her up at the airport. She lived alone in a city where she knew a million souls. Yet there wasn't one who was close enough to know when she came and left. Nobody had ever offered and it wasn't her style to ask anyone for anything.

So, she was very surprised when she heard her phone ring as soon as she switched it on after landing at Mumbai. She assumed it would be her assistant reminding her about the meeting next day. Not wanting to hear her nasal drone at that hour of the night, she ignored the call. But when it rang for the fifth time, she finally flicked it open without looking. It was her mom, wondering why her phone had been out of reach for three hours more than scheduled. There were thunderstorms reported in Mumbai and she had been worried. 

After a reassuring five-minute chat, she hung up and noticed his name and four missed calls next to it. Why was he calling her at 11 in the night? He who slept at 9 pm sharp. He who had messaged her a screenshot of the weather app to know when her flight would arrive; before, during or after the thunderstorms. Did he track down her flight? Was he worried enough to have stayed up to check if she had reached safely? She started to dial his number but then the transit bus arrived. She put her phone back in her bag, assuming it to be about some official work.

Baggage claim areas always irritated her. People who had waited all this while to reach their destination somehow lost their patience when they wait for their baggage. The tapping of feet and knuckles on the trolley, the fidgeting around and the unruly clamour always irked her. Coupled with the gloomy weather outside, it was somehow making her exceptionally irritable. She was just returning from home, wondering if all this big city living and running around was worth the effort, wondering whether it would make more sense to just settle down in her small town, doing whatever her heart felt like. When her phone started buzzing again, it broke her chain of thoughts and seeing his name, she disconnected. She did not want to speak to him. She did not want to speak to anyone.

Seeing the raindrops hit the car roofs and the people scampering around in the rain, she wished she had booked a cab from inside. It would be a nightmare, flagging a cab now. Her eyes welled up and she was glad that no one was here to see her so vulnerable. That's when she felt the tap on her shoulder and she knew. He was here. He had come to pick her up. She turned and there he was, all drenched. His car had broken down but he had still come. He understood how she felt. He knew there had never been anyone where he was now. So he had come. And she could not hold back anymore. She broke down in to tears. And just like that, she gave into him. Like paper to flame.