Brian

We were sitting in the doctor's lounge sipping our hot drinks quietly, lost in our own thoughts.

I remember thinking that if I didn't speak up first, he'd probably be more than contented just sitting there in silence until we were due back for the wards. In the year we've been attached together, I have come to learn that he is a man of very few words. I usually just let the silence eat us up. That day though, i felt like talking.

"So Brian, do you read sci-fi novels?"

He seemed a bit startled by my sudden attempt at conversation. And as far as conversation starters go, i'd have to say mine was a bit on the lousy end. But i was in the midst of reading Ender's Exile at the time (which btw is a brilliant read!) and thus that lousy question was all i could come up with at the top of my head.

"Err.. Yeah, i guess. When i have the time." he answered slowly and a bit too cautiously. "Why do you ask?"

"Oh nothing really. I'm just asking because i read this really good sci-fi novel," I could feel myself starting to blush as he looked at me straight in the eyes with his own piercing brown ones, concentrating on what i was saying.

"It's an old book. Written way back in 1986. The book is as old as my grandpa." I laughed nervously at my own joke. He didn't.

"But it's really really good anyway." I continued more seriously, ditching lame humor for the time being.

"I just thought maybe you'd like to check it out. If you want, that is. Not that I'm saying you have to or anything. Even if you're not into sci-fi, you'd probably like it, i think. Maybe." My attempt at conversation turned out to be more a case of one-way verbal diarrhoea.

He smiled then, and took out his mobile. "What's the name of the novel?"

"Ender's Game," i answered automatically as he keyed it into his phone.

"I'll look it up at the library sometime." He was just being nice and polite. I could sense it.

"Okay." I said, as we fell back into that familiar ball of silence.

And that was that.

One month on, I had forgotten we ever had that little embarrassing conversation. I hadn't seen him for weeks, being attached to different GPs. But I knew I'd see him again the day of exams.

And I did.

He came and sat next to me, which was really flattering considering that he could have chosen to sit anywhere in that large exam hall.

He smiled at me. I smiled at him.

And because we were meant to keep quiet before the exam started, he leaned in and whispered. "Hey Izzy, I read that novel you recommended. You're right. It's really good."

And for the rest of day, all i could think of was how attractive Brian is. Well, to be honest, I've always had a schoolgirl crush on him. And the fact that he actually took the trouble of finding that old piece of novel (which i really really like) and reading it in the middle of exam season made me like him even more.

I've had people who shut me off completely even before i could start telling them about this wonderful work of masterpiece. "I don't read fiction" they'd say to me, acting all huff and puff as if people who do are a rung lower than them on the intelligence scale.

And I have some friends who pretend like they were interested but then when I offered to lend my copy, they'd decline in a heartbeat.

Brian, he's different. He may be quiet and shy. But by just that simple gesture of taking me seriously and reading that novel i recommended, he actually made my day that day.

Oh Brian~ =)