He turned his head for a quick second in the direction of the digital clock on his table, which announced 11.15PM. The last time he checked, it had said 9.10PM. He checked the screen of his laptop. He was nearly done with his work, except for a few final corrections in his speech. The sudden realization of the lateness of the hour seemed to have drained him of his energy, and he thought it best to pack up for the day and complete the remaining parts at home the next morning. After giving it a bit of thought, he shut down his laptop, put it in his bag and walked out of his office. He locked the door and shuffled the few yards to the elevator along the deserted corridor.
He was still cursing himself for the delay in the preparation for the speech as he got into his car and drove it out of the parking lot into the calm London night. He was so disappointed with himself about his mismanagement that he began to show it off by wildly yanking his car from one lane to another as he sped past the other cars. Realizing that he was close to landing himself in trouble, he decided to calm his nerves with the aid of music. He turned on the radio and began to shuffle through different channels when he heard his name.
'...renowned writer Vidal Kramer is going to attend the graduation ceremony at Sir Peuper University of Arts in London, and deliver his speech to the graduating students. Some people speculate that there is a possibility that he might throw some light on the particulars of his upcoming romance "The Counterparts", which is all set to release on the 3rd of September, two months from now. The particular attention that his upcoming book has garnered could be attributed to the fact that it is his first love story since "Her", the novella which had brought him into the limelight by winning him the prestigious "Kevin Lutyens Best Debut Award".'
The news surprised him, for he wasn't expecting the radio channels to broadcast news related to literature and people linked up with literature. The news had further aggravated his nervousness by reminding him of the responsibility he had to fulfil, which he had lazily left uncompleted. He would have started cursing himself once again, if not for the traffic signal demanding him to halt his car. That was when he saw the billboard over an adjacent building. It was announcing a new brand of cologne, which would've gone unnoticed if it hadn't been named after Her. It said "ATHENA".
The memories came back and he made no attempt to repress them.
REWINDING BACK FIFTEEN YEARS...
PHASE 1
TO BE PRECISE, I am not sure when I had first seen her. That must have been when my friend pointed her out amidst a crowd and told me she was the popular girl everyone was talking about, Athena Summers. ATHENA, like the Greek Goddess. Having got something else on my mind, I did not pay much attention to her. That was in the first year of my business school.
It wasn't until the beginning of my second year that I saw her properly for the first time. It was during a fest in our university. Yes, she was beautiful... she was rather cute. That was what I registered and nothing else. However, for some inexplicable reason, her picture was painted clearly in the back of my mind. Months later, when I thought back to that moment, I still remembered every little detail about that moment; her grey colored dress with bright red designs on it and the way she explained my exhibit to her friend instead of asking me. If someone asks me if I had any feelings for her the first time I saw her properly, I would laugh out loud. Love at first sight, according to me, was just a baseless concept. How could one fall in love with someone just by seeing them? Is that all it takes to fall in love, a face? Well, if you say so, I suggest you change your opinion. All I registered was that she was cute, and nothing more.
THE SECOND TIME I gave her my attention was when I was in the cafeteria for my breakfast. I was seated at my usual corner table with my friend. She arrived a few minutes after us and took a seat at the table in front of ours, with her back to me. When my friend suddenly started showing off his skills of sipping his tea noisily, I joked about how he was mimicking one of our Profs, and she turned around. The movement drew my attention to her and our eyes met. I just froze and neither of us broke eye-contact for god-knows-how-many-seconds before my friend's voice brought me back to my surroundings. Minutes later, walking out of the cafeteria, I felt an adrenaline surge. It wasn't the first time I had made such prolonged eye-contact with a girl, however this experience was unlike the rest of them. It was pure euphoria.
