Flutter (Flash Fiction)

She groaned as she stared at the heavy stack of paper-work that remained at her desk. It was still mid-afternoon and there were some more hours to kill before she could go home but she was very irritated. It was Valentine’s Day and none of her colleagues seemed to be in the mood for work. Most of them were taking off early and they were chirping to each other about their evening plans. 

She was single. She had been this way for as long as she could remember. She was yet to experience the chemical reaction called love.  

One by one, as her colleagues started to leave, her boss glanced at her. She was filing some documents.

“Don’t you want to go home?” he asked.
“I will but once I am done. Initially, I was dying to be indoors but when I thought of the soppy love-sick atmosphere that would greet me on my way back, I realized that I’d rather stay here,” she mused.
“Ah! A cynic, are we?” he grinned and left her to get on with her job.

She left her office and stood at the bus-stop. She put on her ear-phones and just when she was looking at her iPod menu to select a playlist, a voice greeted her from behind, “Hey! Your bus left just two minutes ago. You’ll probably have to wait for quite some time till another one stops by.”

She turned to look at him. She did not know who he was but she recognized him. He used to wait at the same bus-stop as her and she had often seen him in the evenings. However, she was surprised that he seemed to know the details of the bus she had to board.

“Don’t worry. I am not a stalker,” he laughed, as if he had read her thoughts.

She gave him a sheepish smile and pretended to be engrossed in listening to music. She was in no mood to strike a conversation with this stranger. As she closed her eyes, humming the lyrics of the song in her mind, he tapped her on the shoulder.

“Hey! Your bus is here,” he pointed. “You don’t want to miss it this time.”

She opened her eyes and looked up. Yes, there it was! She hopped on to the bus and got inside. The bus was unusually empty. She occupied the window-seat and stared at him. He caught her looking at him and smiled. 

“Thank you,” she mouthed, as the bus started to leave. He waved back at her. She kept staring at the bus-stop till it disappeared from sight. She suddenly felt good.

The old song faded into the background and now her ears were filled with the Beatles crooning, “All you need is love; all you need is love; all you need is love, love; love is all you need.” There was a smile on her face as her heart skipped a beat. Yes, love was in the air.