Free No Time for Goodbyes by Andaleeb Wajid Page A

we’re finished, the waiter comes and hovers near us and Manoj pays him the bill.
    â€˜Thanks for the treat,’ I tell him as we get up. He doesn’t reply. Suddenly, I’m feeling angry and irritated and also homesick. I never asked for any of this.
    â€˜What’s your problem?’ I ask him.
    â€˜No problem,’ he mutters as we near the bus stop.
    â€˜Then why are you behaving like this?’ I ask, trying to catch up with him. Why is he walking so quickly as though trying to outpace me?
    He stops suddenly and turns around and I end up stepping on his toes and we crash into each other. He holds my arms to steady me and then steps back, shaking his head.
    â€˜You want to know why I was shocked when I came here on Sunday?’ I ask him, hoping to change the topic and make this weirdness between the two of us go away. My arms are still tingling and I ignore it as I walk beside him. He looks at me sideways and shrugs.
    â€˜Well, all this is not there,’ I say, gesturing to the trees and the benches lined up below it. ‘Instead we have the Metro.’
    â€˜What’s the Metro?’ he asks, intrigued. I explain the concept to him and he’s part fascinated, part horrified. I had never planned on telling any of this to him but now that I’ve started, I can’t stop.
    The bus rolls along and we get inside and I’m still talking. I’m telling him about the depletion of the ozone layer and the greenhouse effect and a whole lot of other things. Finally, he raises a hand and asks me to stop.
    â€˜What happened?’ I ask feeling breathless.
    â€˜You were right. I wish you hadn’t told me all this,’ he says, looking out of the window. Great. Now I’ve gone and depressed him.
    â€˜But it’s not all bad! There’s a lot of good stuff happening too!’ I think of technology and how much it has changed our lives, most of it for the better.
    â€˜Look, it will all be fine,’ I tell him, shaking his arm to make him look at me. He turns in his seat and looks pointedly at my hand on his arm but I don’t pull away so he jerks his arm free and takes a deep breath.
    â€˜Most of what you said didn’t make sense to me, so I’ll just try and forget the rest,’ he says evenly.
    I hate this sudden quarrel that we’re having for no reason. I mean, last week on Tuesday I was at home with my mother, watching her watch endless soaps on TV. I was bored out of my skull and positive my bottom had grown roots in the sofa. I had no idea this guy even existed. Suddenly my world has been turned around on its head. How am I supposed to make sense of anything?
    â€˜Okay, why are you behaving like this?’ I ask him in a fierce whisper.
    â€˜You really want to know?’ he asks, his voice low. To my horror, I realise that his low voice is really sexy. Oh god! I did not just think that.
    â€˜Until Saturday I had no idea who you were. Now suddenly, we’re spending so much time together and I know this cannot last. You’re going to go back to where you belong and that just makes me …’ he shrugs as though unable to complete his sentence.
    â€˜It just makes me angry that I’m not around in 2012. Or even if I am, I’m so much older than you,’ he completes his sentence in a baffled whisper.
    I look down at my lap, horrified to realise that I’m fighting tears. Why the hell am I crying? What just happened?
    â€˜I’m sorry for everything,’ I find myself telling him. I have no idea exactly what I’m apologising for. I look up at him and realise that he’s looking out of the window. We get down from the bus in strained silence and a few feet away from Ajji’s home, he stops.
    I stop too and look at him surprised. He steps forward and unleashing a huge number of boppity bops in my chest, he cups my face in his hands.
    â€˜I told myself yesterday that you’re too young for me. I