Jim and Kim

Sitting hand in hand with Jim, by the fireplace and getting warm and cozy after all the hard work they had put in decorating the house for the Christmas Party this evening, Kim thought of all the incidents that brought them this close.

The colors of the balloons, stars, crepe paper decorations, and lighting in the room were overwhelming, just like the series of events that were replaying in Kim’s mind. Kim had gone shopping to a nearby mall, when she first met Jim. Jim was having a real bad day. Jim had just moved to Manhattan from Chicago and his packers were yet to deliver his goods at his new home. To add to his woes, his luggage went missing the moment he landed at the airport and here, he was, all tattered by stress and travel, at the shopping mall, trying to pick up some sensible clothes and stuff for himself to survive until his packers arrived. He crashed into Kim, while she was crossing to the outlet’s reception, at the mall, with an expensive vase in hand, to get it gift-wrapped and there….boom went the vase, crashing to the floor. The anger was written on Kim’s face….she had, after hours of contemplation, finally chosen this vase and it was one of the most expensive ones in town, to gift her mother on her birthday and there was this man, who had jumped out of nowhere and sent this vase flying and crashing onto the floor. It was all she could do, not to scream at the guy. She gave him a scornful look. Jim realized what he had done and apologized profusely and offered to pay for it or help her replace it with another vase, but Kim refused it pointblank. She just stamped her foot and went back to the shop window to start her search for another gift for her mom, leaving Jim too shocked to react. 

Kim looked for a gift in couple of other shops and there, she found a lovely woolen high-neck swing coat for her mom to wear this winter. Lovely that it was, the matte finish of the black coat was an add-on to its value. She decided on it the moment she saw it and was on her way to pay at the cash-counter, when again, there was this guy, crashing into her again, and this time…spilling all the contents of his soda can on the black coat she just picked. Furious with anger, which she couldn’t control this time, she yelled at him and inquired if he was here on a mission to ruin every gift that she was picking up. She was struggling to hold herself from holding this guy by collars and roughing him up. She just screamed, and stamped her foot and went out of the shop. This again was none other than our hero, Jim. However hard he tried, he couldn’t help get things on track this bad day of his. He had almost finished shopping with the credit card, that luckily was in his coat pocket and not his bag. He decided to call it a day and go back to his home before he crashed on to her again and damaging some more of the little positive image, if any, she had of him. He went out of the mall and called for a taxi.

On the other side, Kim had decided it was a bad day to choose gift for mom and decided to go back home, furious with the crazy guy who kept running into her, from nowhere, all the time. The moment she came out of the mall, she saw a taxi and called for it, just to find the same “crazy, cranky, running-in-from-nowhere” guy calling at the same taxi. Both came rushing to the taxi. The last thing they wanted was to travel together, but seeing no other taxi around, this seemed to be the only option. They soon found that they were headed for the same area and were actually neighbors.

There was an uneasy silence between them, when Jim decided to give it the first shot. He said, “Hi, I am Jim. Look, am really sorry for all the goof-up, just had a real bad day….it’s not that I end up banging into pretty girls everyday but this day seems to be special”. Kim was thinking, “Ah…what a flattery, esp. coming from someone as cranky, crazy, good-for-nothing, running-out-of-nowhere guy like you” but she politely replied back saying, “It’s ok”. Jim thought this was a good beginning, though she had not been courteous enough to introduce herself in reply to his introduction. He continued, “Am here in Manhattan for the first time. I just moved in from Chicago. How about you?” She was thinking, “As if I care where you belong to. For me, you come just from nowhere all the time” but again she smiled and replied, trying to sound as polite as possible, “I have stayed in Manhattan all my life. It’s a beautiful city..just that once in a blue moon, some people from nowhere bump into you and help you with your belongings ”. Jim understood the sarcasm behind the smile and tried to change the conversation, “BTW you never told me your name.” Kim told him her name and soon, the conversation moved towards an easy comfortable friendliness between them and they realized there was more to the relation than it appeared. They got down at Kim’s house and promised to meet each other again. From there Jim went to his house, only to find the packers waiting for him, outside the house. He set the house in place and went to buy a gift for Kim’s mom. They met couple of more times, only to realize that they were in love already.

The love and warmth in his touch made Kim say a silent prayer, willing this to last a lifetime.

And, lo, it was time for Christmas Party now.