Julie & Kishore by Carol Jackson Read Free Book Online

aren’t they sweet!” Linda agreed and we got ourselves a drink, sat at the
table, sipped our coffees and talked about her role at McAllister and Co . now that she had settled into her promotion.
    Before
t o o long she had to go back to work but I decided to
stay a few more minutes to fill out my order forms. My head was bent over my
papers when Kishore entered the room. Raising my head, I smiled politely, of
course I recognised him, I knew his name but didn’t know him well enough to
talk to - we had only exchanged a few courteous hellos or spoken briefly about
work matters.
      I continued working. Though
eventually, I felt his eyes upon me. Looking up, I saw Kishore standing over me
- suddenly he thrust a flower towards me. Feeling my face blush from my neck to
my forehead I took it from him , I was stunned, “ What’s this?” I asked in surprise. He was unable to answer
because just at that moment Linda returned as she had apparently
forgotten something.
    She tried to digest just what was going on as Kishore brushed
past her making a quick exit, I was glad she decided not to say anything to
me…I was incapable of answering. Although she did sum up the situation pretty
quickly, she was an accountant after all, she glanced towards the door Kishore
had just gone through, then back at me and back towards Kishore.
    ‘Kishore
and Julie, who would have thought?’ she wondered. Looking at me again, sitting
like a possum caught in a cars headlights
she made her decision. While muttering to herself, “Well, Linda my dear, it
seems it is up to you,” she spun around and ran after him.
      Catching up with Kishore at his office door,
Linda asked, “Why did you give Julie a flower?”
    He
didn’t answer but she didn’t give up and her next question happened to be the
right one, “Do you like Julie?”
    His
eyes were firmly locked on a thread on the carpet but she heard a quiet but
definite, “Yes.”
    “Do
you want me to ask Julie for her phone number?”  
    Again
Kishore mumbled a quiet but clear, “Yes.”
    After
accomplishing the first part of her mission Linda decided to take charge and do
the right thing.
    “Okay,
Kishore I’ll be the matchmaker if you like,” she chuckled, “Don’t worry, I’ll
talk to Julie.”

 
    Linda
returned to the lunchroom, where I was still sitting like a dazed possum,
staring at the flower. She pulled out a chair opposite me and sat down.
    “So?”
    “So
what?” I replied.
    “So,
what do you think?”
    “What
do I think about what?”
    “Juuuuuulie!”
Linda knew full well I was deliberately stalling. “Kishore, Julie, what do you
think of Kishore? Do you like him, would you go out with him?”
    Linda
was right, I was trying to gain some time to analyse the situation. My first
thought, in the few minutes since Linda had left was ‘Who on earth does this
guy think he is? Giving me a flower, me!’ Then, ‘Well , it was kind of a nice gesture, no guy has ever given me a flower before.’ I
twirled the pink carnation between my fingers and glanced at the flowers in the
vase on the lunch table. A light bulb came on in my head, did this guy just
make a romantic gesture by giving a girl a flower straight from a cafeteria
lunch table? It was so cheeky that I could not help but smile.
    I
put the flower to my nose and breathed in its fragrance as I thought to myself
- an Indian, this guy is Indian! If the giving of this flower leads to a date,
would I actually consider going out with an Indian man?
    What
would my parents think? It just wasn’t done, was it? It was practically unheard
of, a person of one race having a relationship with a person from another race,
was I bold enough to be that person? Could I be capable of going against what
was deemed right and proper? But then who were they to deem what was right and proper? As I sat there in confusion, these thoughts jumbled and tumbled
around in my head like a washing machine set on ‘spin.'

 
    I
knew without a doubt