THE DILEMMA

A dilemma that everyone faces, an argument that everyone has, a decision that everyone must take.

                                             THE DILEMMA

February 14, 2016, the perfect place, the perfect time and a dilemma-


 Ram, an IT employee was pinned in a fierce argument between 2 of his close friends Romeo and Einstein (that’s how he calls them).

‘You better don’t screw it this time’, Romeo was serious in his tone.

‘it’s never going to work-out, you would probably end up in a bar sipping your whiskey and mourn over your failure’, argued Einstein. It was Ram’s date night with the girl he loves, Riya. He was in a situation that every guy faces when he is going to express his love to his girl and this was Ram’s 5th attempt. After failing 4 attempts, Romeo was keen on telling him, this is  THE DAY, the only difference was that Romeo was up for encouraging ram to go for it while Einstein took a step back to think on the usual WHAT IFs. Ram washed his hands and walked to the entrance to see her waiting for him.

 ‘She looks beautiful, I have a strong feeling that it’s definitely going to happen today ‘, said Romeo dazzled by the beauty of Riya.

 ‘you’ve said that for all the attempts he did Rom’, Einstein was mocking Romeo with no bit of encouragement to Ram. Ram stood there in front of her still drooling over on how pretty she was.

 ‘let’s just go inside first, I’m hungry already’, Riya stopped his flow of appreciation and they went inside following the manager who was leading them to their reserved table.

’Perfect spot, Perfect ambiance, it’s definitely the perfect day for what you’ve been waiting for after all the failed attempts Ram’, exclaimed Romeo.

 ‘I’m sure this is going to be an another failed attempt too. Look at her, she seems to be more interested in the menu card than him, what if she laughs at him as if he was telling a joke’, argued Einstein.

‘Shut up Ein’, Romeo was angry, he felt the drowning confidence in Ram. It was a regular routine for Riya to have a look at the whole menu card and the variety of dishes at a restaurant and ends up ordering the same set of food she eats wherever she goes, while it was a regular routine for Ram to look at her wandering eyes searching for something, those eyes that anyone would melt for.

‘Enough looking at her, say it now’, said Romeo, ‘what if she walks away?’, argued Einstein. Ram started to tense a bit, he doesn’t want her to react the opposite way, ‘I can’t afford to lose her’, he said to himself. His friends knew how much he loves her, he left a huge sigh and kept looking at her.

‘why are you staring at me?’, Riya was aware.

‘Nothing, I was just... ummm.. waiting for you to give the menu card’, Ram tried to cover it up.

‘Ram, that was the worst comeback you could have come up with’, mocked Einstein.

’ shut up smarty pants’, Romeo tried to shut Einstein up and the never-ending argument continued while Ram and Riya finally ordered their food and Riya was looking right at Ram while he looked around trying so hard not to make an eye contact. He almost lost the confidence for it to happen that day with the embarrassment happened earlier and the non-stop arguments happening between his friends.


 ‘So how was your day? ‘, Riya, couldn’t wait any longer for him to start talking. Ram’s concentration was dragged back to her and her smile was all he needed to reduce his tension, she was beautiful.

He struggled to get his words out,’ well…yeah…I mean ..it was ….good’, his friends started to laugh as he struggled to talk to her.

‘I knew this is what was going to happen’, Einstein was so conceited.

‘oh shut up Ein, all you see is him, look at her for a second’, said Romeo and Ram heard it. Ram’s eyes opened wide with excitement, he felt his pulse beat faster.

‘she just smiled, what’s special in that? ‘, Einstein was still against as if he was technically designed to be that way though he knew that wasn’t just a smile. It was a blush.

Ram couldn’t believe what he saw, he was more confused now and this was not going to help him.
‘ What does that mean?  She actually blushed, for the first time in 7 years since I knew her’, Ram was confused.

‘ that was the easiest hint one could ever get, you idiot', Romeo was on top of his voice and Einstein was ready to argue but stopped by Ram’s voice.

‘ Riya … um.. can you give me a second, I need to use the washroom’, and he left. ‘Ram, what was that? go back now', he doesn’t seem to listen to Romeo. ‘okay come on, maybe it is really a blush, maybe she really likes you. I may have been wrong’, Einstein understood what was happening to ram, he can’t let this happen to him, he just couldn’t. Einstein knew it was time now that he made a decision.


 ‘Both of you, can you please stop now’, Ram was angry and upset with himself.  He just stood there in front of a mirror looking at himself and figuring out what to do.

‘me and Einstein are on the same page finally, Aren’t we ?’, Einstein had to agree,’ this is that moment ram, there’s nothing to think about, let’s do it’, Einstein was finally motivating. A smile bloomed on Ram’s face, he was finally prepared.

The travel to his table felt like it took him forever to reach and he feels himself tensing up inside. He could sense her look on him, he had to do it, he had all the encouragement back at the washroom, but just by a glimpse of her face makes him forget things.

‘ sorry it took me a while’, Ram with that fake formal apology. He couldn’t wait anymore.

 ’I can’t believe you haven’t told her yet, how long are you going to take Ram?’, Einstein kept taunting him.

‘ okay here we go', he was ready, he called her name and she looked right into his eyes, he knew he shouldn’t waste it, with a smile on his face...

 ‘I love you’….



February 14, 2017 �" Same place, same time but a different dilemma -

Ram looked at himself in the mirror,  tension seems to rise again. It looked like a déjà vu to him when he walked out of the washroom and the travel to his table takes forever when he’s in a dilemma, a different one this time.

‘Are you sure Ram? ‘, Einstein with his never-ending doubts.

‘Of course, he is, now don’t you dare confuse him like how you did last time’, Romeo nailing down Einstein over their previous dilemma.

‘ don’t blame the whole thing on me, you were a part of it too and to remind you, I agreed too’.

‘ In what way was I a part of it? I was so sure about it and it did happen, you know that and yes you did agree but, you were late’, Romeo was right it did happen but not like how they thought it would.

‘of course, it did happen but not the way we planned’. Ram had no interest in their argument now, he had to stop this.

’ guys enough, it doesn’t matter how it happened, it would have happened either way. You both should understand that I’m not the only person who ends up in an argument between myself, everyone does, so did Riya. She made the decision and she…’

Ram was distracted when he caught his sight on Riya waiting for him at the table. He couldn’t resist smiling and he knew he had to do it.

 ‘ She’s the best thing that has ever happened to me guys, she made the decision and she fought her dilemma to let those words out. Those three magical words that brought us here to our yet another dilemma over a much bigger thing at stake, our future. I think it’s time for me to make a decision and I promise, you both wouldn’t regret it after all ‘you are me and I am you’.

Ram walked towards her and waved at her.

’ you look beautiful’, he said as they kissed and he looked right into her eyes.

 ‘ Is there something you want to tell ?’, Riya knows when he’s up to something. Ram smiled and reached his pocket to take something out. Riya’s eyes widened, her hands trembled as she tried to cover her crying face of excitement and happiness as ram took it out of his pocket.
Those magical words were out, finally from him.

Not 3 but 4.

Author's Note

please read, share and review and thank you in advance :)

Reviews

[Swetha]

Good one. can sense the dilemma he was going through...

[JayG]

• Ram, an IT employee was pinned in a fierce argument between 2 of his close friends Romeo and Einstein (that’s how he calls them).

The problem is that this isn't a story, it's a report of what happened IN the story—an overview—as explained by a narrator/storyteller whose voice cannot be heard, and whose performance cannot be seen.

You talk about RAM in generic terms, ans say he works in IT. BUT what is an IT employee, in terms of this story? He could be working for a big or small company. Now, or 100 years in the future. He could be a new hire or a week from retiring.

That matters very much to the feel of the story. And a "fierce argument," could be about operating systems, hardware, football, politics, or literally a million other things. As a reader who just arrived, why do I care that someone I don't know is arguing with two people I don't know, about an unknown subject?

And while you might say to read on and find out, a reader won't. They're volunteers, not conscripts. Confuse them for a single line and they stop reading.

My point? Writing fiction is nothing like telling a story in person. It's nothing like the style of writing you were taught in school, because there, they were teaching you skills employers require, not the tricks of fiction writing, And employers require nonfiction skills.

So it's not a matter of good or bad writing. It's that the skills you presently own are inappropriate to our medium. So some hours spent picking up the tricks of the trade would be time well spent

For a kind of overview of the field, you might want to dig through the articles in my writing blog. They're written for the hopeful writer.

I truly wish that my news was better. But keep in mind that what I've said is about the learned part of our profession, the craft. And those problems are fixable.

Jay Greenstein
https://jaygreenstein.wordpress.com/category/the-craft-of-writing/

But the reader knows nothing about him.