Hard-to-Get

A short story by LJ (A Love Story)

I think playing hard-to-get is highly imprudent. I think the truth is this: it’s either he can get you or he can’t. This game, played and perpetrated by the ladies, cheapens men—as if they are not worth fighting for too.

James was twenty two, but he looked for much too young for his age. When he was clean-shaven and had his hair neatly cut, he looked like a teenager. In fact, his fifteen year old brother looked older than him, so most people had a hard time accepting that he was older.
Though James was intelligent and handsome, he felt he had very few things to be proud of. He had recently returned from university after failing a couple of examinations. It had been a very difficult experience for him, especially because he had never failed before. Thus, he felt like a total loser with nothing to really call his own.

He was hardly gregarious by nature and so he usually stayed at home all day. It was only occasionally when he would leave home in the early evening to take long solitary walks. These walks allowed him to muse on his misfortunes and work out a plan in his mind to get himself out of his wretched situation. He often felt that he had sooner live on his own than with his parents, but from the way things were going, it was going to be a couple of years before he could live on his own.
Back at university, James had befriended a couple of people whom, now that he was miles away, missed terribly. But the one he missed more than all the others was Natasha, a pretty and charming girl whom he had come to like very much. They had only been friends, nothing more and nothing less. But now, he realized that he loved her, and wanted to spend the rest of his life with her.
One fine day, James decided to go back to the university to see Natasha so that he could tell her how he felt about her. He told his parents that he wanted to go and apply for re-admission. But that was hardly true. He wanted to see Natasha, nothing more and nothing less.
Upon arriving, James went straight to her room, where he found her with her roomie, Vicky. The two girls were thrilled to see him, but not as thrilled as he was to see Natasha.
“James!” Natasha shrieked. She rushed towards him and hurled herself at him, enfolding him tightly. After a while, she loosed herself and stared into his face with her large, round eyes.
“How are you?” she asked, tightly gripping his arms.
“Fine—now that I have seen you,” he confessed, smiling down at her.
She giggled merrily, grasped his hand and pulled him across the room to the chair which stood at the far end near the open window through which a cool breeze was blowing into the room. The pink curtains fluttered elegantly, filling him with an intense nostalgia as he remembered those days not so long ago when he used to visit this room almost every other day.
“Hi Vicky!” he greeted after he had sat down.
“Hi!” Vicky greeted, with a beaming smile. She batted her eyelids rapidly, which she usually did when she was very happy.
“So how have you been?” he asked, turning his attention to Natasha.
“I have been fine,” she responded.
“That is good,” he said with a sigh. He was already lost in her gaze. Her big, round eyes seemed to bore through him. He shifted a bit uneasily.
“How is school?” he asked after a brief spell of silence. Natasha’s gaze usually unnerved him.
“It’s been very hard, James,” she responded, shaking her head sadly.
“I am sorry to hear about that,” he revealed with sympathy painted all over his face. “Just do work hard—you don’t want to end up like me, do you?”
“Gee no.” she said in a small voice, scrutinizing him hard.
“You are very strong, James,” Vicky said, murmuring with wonderment.
“What do you mean?” He asked with a puzzled expression, raising one eyebrow.
“You look so unaffected. If I were you, I would be crying all day and all night.”
“You can only cry for so long,” he said with a chuckle. “When I just learnt that I had failed, I shed a waterfall of tears; but I soon ran out of tears.”
“You are so funny!” Vicky gasped, reeling all over the bed with laughter.
Natasha on the other hand was not laughing. She was staring at him pitifully and shaking her head at the same time.
“But you know, the pain of failure has been easier to handle; but there is another pain which has been almost impossible to endure.”
“What’s that?” Natasha asked curiously.
“That of missing friends,” he said, staring hard and affectionately at her.
“Wow.” Vicky breathed inaudibly, giving him nervous glances.
“I can imagine,” Natasha said with a slight air of indifference. “We’ve been missing you too.”
There was a moment or two of awkward silence. Finally, James got up and stretched his hand towards Natasha.
“Would you mind going for a walk?” He asked, nervously and shakily.
“No, I would love to!” She shrieked like a little girl. She clapped her hands merrily and with a lilting step, she rushed to her closet and pulled out some pert blue slippers which suited perfectly with her long, navy skirt. James smiled in amusement and winked at Vicky. Vicky smiled back, but there was a hint of envy in her eyes.

A few moments later, James and Natasha were walking along the corridors, down some steps and onto the driveway. She was walking jauntily beside him, and his heart swelled with pride. Natasha was a very pretty girl and most guys could only dream of being with her. In fact, he had heard that she had turned down a number of offers of friendships from several boys. But yet, here he was.
“Let’s get some drinks,” she suggested as they walked by the café.
“Gee, I’ve got no cash,” he confessed.
“No problem! I can buy us some,” she said with a flashy smile that left him breathless for several moments.
“You can?” he goggled at her, feeling acutely embarrassed that a girl could buy him a drink. Conventionally, he was the one who was supposed to do that.
“Yep!” she chirped, and hurried ahead of him to the counter.
He shrugged and followed her slowly. After they had bought their drinks they sat down at one of the empty tables. James sipped at his drink nervously.
“Do you know why I came?” he asked after a painful while of gaping, gasping and sighing.
“Um, to see your friends?” she responded, staring at him naively.
“Yeah, but no quite,” he said, his heart beating faster as she stared into his eyes.
“Why did you come?” she asked.
He went blank for several moments. He had practiced all the way what to say, but now, he could not just get himself to say it. He stared at her hair to avoid her penetrative gaze. It was shiny, black and gently wavy. It extended all the way to her bare shoulders, which were only covered by the thin straps that held up her sky-blue blouse.
“I came to see you,” he said finally.
“Really? I am flattered,” she said, thrusting her hand onto her chest.
“I did terribly miss you.” he said with a slight wince.
“Poor James!” she exclaimed, stretching out her hand and placing it on his. It was soft and gentle. He stared at it in disbelief, surprised that she actually held his hand.
“It is normal to miss a friend,” she continued with a smirk. James stared at her with slight discouragement. He slowly withdrew his hand. He did not like the look on her face. It seemed that she did not really know how he felt about her. Did she know how hard it had been to say what he had just said?
He ran his finger around the rim of the bottle as he thought of what to say next.
“You see, you are not just like any ordinary friend to me.” he breathed, giving her a sideward glance. “You are special.”
He observed, with a growing amount of alarm, that she suddenly grew cold. The glimmer in her eyes slowly vanished, giving way to a frightful dark expression. The edges of her lips curved downwards and the smile on them was gone. But he was not going to let that discourage him from saying what he wanted. He had come too far.
“Natasha,” he continued with a voice full of emotion, “When I left, I could not think of anything else or anyone else but you. I realized that it is you that I want to be with for the rest of my life.” he held his breath and held her hand, though barely looking at her. “ What I am trying to say is that: I fell in love with you, Natasha. And I want to know if you feel the same way.”
He finally had the courage to fully look into her eyes. The expression on her face, however, almost gave him fits. She was cold and emotionless, like a statue. She stared at him, her eyes round like golf balls.
“I have to go.” she said coldly, loosening her hand.
“I am sorry I have taken you by surprise,” he said apologetically. He was always quick to apologise. “But I really needed to tell you how I feel.”
She nodded and quickly got up to her feet.
“Natasha, have I offended you?” he inquired fretfully, alarmed at her sudden coldness. She shook her head. She slowly turned and began to walk away. James remained standing there, stunned. There were a few people seated nearby, staring at him with amusement.
“Ran after her,” one of the ladies seated behind him said with a broad smile. He stared at her with goggle eyes. She urged him on with a nod. He smiled slightly and dashed after her. He was soon walking beside her. He had to struggle to keep up with her as she was walking at a furious pace. There was a big frown on her face. His heart nearly stopped. He had definitely annoyed her! That was the last thing he ever wanted to do in the whole entire world.
“Oh Natasha!” he exclaimed. “I am so sorry, so….”
But she did not respond. In fact she walked only faster. Upon reaching the room, she pushed the door open and burst in, with James at her heals.
“What is the matter?” Vicky asked in alarm.
“I am sorry.” James said as Natasha flopped onto her bed with a pouting expression.
“What happened?” Vicky asked, staring at James with suspicion.
“I have to go.” James said with a tear trekking down his cheek.
As James walked back to his Auntie’s place, where he was staying, his mind was a whirlpool of confusion. He could barely make sense of what had happened. He had thought that Natasha would respond positively and merrily, especially because she usually gave him the impression that she loved him too. But when he told her how he felt, she totally went cold. Perhaps she did not really feel the same way he felt about her. Perhaps she preferred that they only be friends, nothing more. If she really felt that way, he would respect her feelings. If she could offer him nothing more than what they had, he would have to be content with that.
The next few days were extremely difficult for James. He tried to reach out to Natasha, but he couldn’t. She was completely closed up to him. He tried his best to apologise for what he had done because it seemed that it had upset her. Finally, after a great deal of struggling, he got some kind of response.
“I… I am not angry with you,” she said, barely looking at him.
“You sure do look like it.” he said, eyeing her in disbelief.
“No I am not. You were just telling me how you feel.” she looked squarely at him.
“Okay, if I am looking at things right, you prefer that we only be friends, right?”
She nodded.
“Good,” he said with a little sigh of relief. “Let’s go back to being friends. I will respect your wishes and won’t push matters.”
He stretched out his hand. She reluctantly grasped it and they shook hands, with slight smiles across their faces.

James could have stayed longer, but he couldn’t. Natasha, the one girl he really loved, had turned him down. He felt terribly awful, and he blamed himself entirely for it. It was obviously because of his failures. No girl would want to go out with a failure. They wanted a serious man with no record of failure on his resume. He was a hopeless failure.
Back at home, he tried his best to forget about Natasha. He really did. But it was impossible. Many nights he cried, shedding torrents of tears, when he remembered her enchanting stare; her cute little giggles; her gorgeous long hair. He could not just get to accept the fact that she was never going to be his.
Sometimes, he sent her loads and loads of text messages, telling her how much he really liked her. But she did not respond. Eventually, he started communicating with Vicky. Initially their conversations were centred on Natasha, with James trying to find out as much as he could about her.
“She is still mad with me, ain’t she?” he asked her one day as they talked on the phone.
“Yeah.” Vicky said. “She says she could hardly believe you could say those things.”
“You know it’s amazing,” he said with a chuckle. “I was initially under the impression that she liked me, when I told her how I felt about her, she became like a completely different person!”
“She only liked you as a friend,” Vicky said emphatically.
“Yeah, I know. Thanks a lot, Vicky,” he felt a warm glow in his heart that he could not fully understand each time he talked to Vicky. “You have always been there for me.”
“Don’t mention it. I am your friend. Friends are there for each other.”
“Wow.” was all he could say.
As time went on, James realized that Vicky was really a good friend, and the only one who was there for him during all his distressing times. He began to rely heavily on her for emotional support. She was like his anchor in troubled seas. Gradually, he forgot about Natasha. He eventually went to college, got a degree in computer studies and began to work. Finally, his dream of leaving home and staying on his own came true. And all this time, he had kept in touch with Vicky. After a lot of thinking, he finally decided that Vicky was the one person he really wanted to spend the rest of his life with. So he invited her to dinner one night, and under some romantic candle light, he proposed to her. She readily accepted, much to his relief and joy because he had imagined that she would react the same way Natasha had some five years ago. A month later, they married. It was the happiest day for the both of them.

One cold morning in June, Natasha scurried to the bus station to wait for the bus to take her for work. She was working as a secretary for a publishing firm. It was hardly a glamorous job and paid quite little. But it was a job. Her fingers were weary and had cramps from all those hours she spent typing away on the keyboard. She cursed and murmured to herself. She really detested the hectic city life. She had barely stayed here for a year and she was already missing her hometown. It was quiet and serene with very little human traffic. But here, in the capital city, she could not avoid rubbing shoulders with passersby. For an introvert person like her, this was way too much to handle.
Suddenly, she stopped dead in her tracks when she reached the station, for right there, standing straight and tall, was James. He looked much older and more handsome. He had a neatly trimmed moustache that gave him an enchanting look.
“James!” she shrieked. He turned and saw her. A broad smile appeared across his face.
“Natasha?” he said in a deep voice.
“Yeah, it’s me!” she squealed and run up to him. She threw herself at him and hugged him tightly.
“I am so glad to see you!” she breathed, her eyes flooding with tears.
“Me too,” he said with a chuckle as he loosed himself from the hug to take a good look at her. He gasped when he noticed how much she had changed. The lustre in her eyes was gone. Her hair was short and loose. Her hands were hard and firm from toil.
“What’s been happening with you?” she asked.
“Nothing much,” he said with a smirk. “I am working for myself—started a company in computer network connections.”
“Gee!” she shrieked, as was typical of her. “That is lovely!”
“Not really. What is happening with you?”
“I am just a measly secretary with a measly pay.” she said kicking at a stone in frustration.
“Oh don’t feel bad about that. If they treat you that bad, you can come work for me. I can pay you well.”
“Oh, that would be amazing.” she said, hugging him again. She whimpered in his arms. He slowly loosed her again.
“You know I am married now,” he revealed.
She suddenly went stiff. Her eyes went round and she stared at him in severe disbelief. “You are married?”
“Yeah.” He said slowly, eyeing her critically. He noticed with amusement that she was reacting the same way she had several years ago.
“When?”
“Early this year.”
“Why didn’t you inform me, or invite me to the wedding?”
“I tried, but you were out of reach.”
“Oh God!” she threw her hand to her mouth and tears trekked down her face in streams.
James could not really understand her reaction. He thought she would be quite happy for him, but she was visibly distressed. He felt quite at a loss of what to do. He just helplessly watched her whimper.
“Who is she, by the way?” She suddenly asked, staring him in the face. He thought he saw anger in them. He shuddered.
“She’s right behind you.” He said pointing at the bus which had just arrived.
She quickly turned. She was just in time to see Vicky stepping out of the bus. There was a glowing smile across her face, but it immediately vanished when she saw Natasha. She slowly walked towards them, giving Natasha cold glances.
“Hi Natasha,” she greeted, trying her best to look and sound cheerful.
“Hi.” She responded coldly, with a million question marks spinning out of her bulging eyes.
“Long time,” Vicky said.
“Yeah.”
Natasha watched with horror as Vicky walked up to James and gave him a warm hug.
“Hi darling,” she said sweetly. “I missed you.”
“So did I.” James replied, with an eye on Natasha who was now looking as pale as someone who had just seen an apparition.
“Vicky!” she squealed. “Vicky is your wife?”
“Yeah. I’m surprised you did not know.” He gave his wife a suspicious glance. “I thought you promised that she’d be the first person to know.”
Vicky just shrugged and said nothing.
“Vicky, how could you?” Natasha hissed vehemently, with arms akimbo. There was a frightfully dark expression on her face. “Just how could you?”
“It just happened,” she said with a shrug.
“Did you not know that I loved him?” she barked. “How could you steal him from me?”
“Well, you were not the only one who loved him,” Vicky said, leaving her husband’s side and pacing in front of her with slight arrogance. “While you were there pretending not to be happy; pretending not to like him, I was fighting for him.”
James could hardly believe what he was hearing. He threw his hand to his mouth in disbelief as he watched the two brawling women. By now a crowd of people had gathered. In a place where hardly anything exciting happened, this was welcome entertainment.
“When you love something, Natash, You fight for it; that is what I did.” Vicky said, staring at her in derision.
“You knew I was just playing hard-to-get, and you sneaked right behind my back!”
“No, I did not sneak behind your back; I just played easy-to-get!”
Natasha, unable to contain her rage anymore, lashed out and gave Vicky a painful slap across the face. The crowd reeled with excitement. James rushed forward and grabbed hold of his wife. He pulled her away from Natasha and away from the station. Natasha remained weeping bitterly. The crowd, disappointed that the action was over so soon and so prematurely, slowly dispersed.
Vicky was thoroughly shaken. She threw her arms around her husband and wept in his arms.
“I am sure you are angry with me,” she sobbed, looking up at him with red teary eyes.
“No,” James said with a smile as he wiped away her tears with his hand. “I am not angry with you, my dearest. I love you very much and I am glad you did what you did. If Natasha wanted me that much, she would have done exactly what you did.”

Hard-to-get is an interesting game. But when one plays it too hard, they may just lose what they want!

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