“Let’s read the instructions together!” she told me cheekily. I always liked the way she smiled. So adorable.
“You show me, and I will beat you,” I challenged her.
“Oh, you can never beat me Cekmi, I always win…”
“We’ll see.”

So we started playing, exploring the rules like naughty kids in the kindergarten, throwing cards childishly, laughing heartily at our stupid mistakes, oblivious of the curious onlookers around us in the restaurants eating their happy meals, and soon things became more serious when we both knew the tricks of the game. I won the first two rounds. She won the third and fourth. I won again. She didn’t give up. Gosh! At the end – 6-5. She won.

Lily enjoyed her ‘trophy’ later on – Sundae ice cream! We were both happy after having our happy meals during happy hours in a happy mood playing a happy game with a happy ending after a happy outing. Happy ever after.

But this entry is not about Uno. It is about Lily. And you might have been troubled with this question.

Who the hell is Lily?

Isn’t she adorable?

I met her two years ago during a post-graduate meeting in the university. She was my junior in the class. Since the very beginning, I knew there was something about her character that was irresistibly pulling me to a mild ecstasy – she was petite, charming, sweet and spoilt. And I found one significant fact - we shared the same birthday!

Wow. What a good omen.

This could be a new beginning for something. So I helped her get a place in my college as an English lecturer. She was then not only my beautiful classmate but also my pretty colleague. I always liked her professionally and personally, but our so-called relationship was not that sweet.

Things were a bit hectic between us.

When we were classmates in Semantics class, we had a heart-wrenching problem. We were asked by our lecturer, Dr. Subra, to be partners for a class project but I was reluctant. I asked for another student to be my partner, but Dr. Subra demanded that Lily and I should be ‘a couple’ since we were both working at the same college. As a matter of fact, I just found out about the true colours of Lily’s professional personality – she was at times careless and couldn’t be bothered with her tasks. This character opposed my organised and meticulous traits and this made me quite uncomfortable working with her.

When I scolded her one day over the phone for not being punctual for a presentation in our class, she was crying and whimpering and telling me that I should not treat her that way, because there had never been anyone in her life who would dare to raise their voice at her. Well, sorry Lily, it doesn’t work for me. Who cares? I don’t care. You mess up with me and you are going to pay the price, I said harshly. Soon enough, I privately went to see Dr. Subra, and told him that I wanted to disengage my partnership with Lily. He was gentle and didn’t say a word, but in the class, he commented a lot about our strained relationship and attempted a lot of unbelievable tricks to put Lily and me together again as a team, telling us that we shouldn’t ‘break up’ and we were perfect together. He acted just like an old lady matchmaker from China.

“You two should talk to each other. Take my money and go to Victoria Station and sort things out between you guys,” said Dr. Subra, smiling like a father who understood perfectly about his son’s love affairs. The other classmates were grinning, probably thinking that we were both stupid couple who did not know how to handle our own love and study affairs. I finally gave in to his advice, out of sympathy for Lily because she would not get any marks for the project since the major part of it had been completed by me. So we did our assignments together and at last passed the subject with flying colours (Lily had always been Dr. Subra’s favourite, by the way).

In the college, I was not really satisfied with her performance and attitude. She was late, sloppy and out of control. It irritated me to see such a charming-looking girl who has a right aptitude but with a bad attitude. But after some time and through years of experience and training, I could see that Lily is changing and showing me her improvements. I see her now with a different perspective. She has proven to me that I had been wrong all this while thinking that she was just another dumb blonde who knew nothing about attitude and hard work. She is now a grown lady. In fact, I found her sexier when she was just promoted as a Course Coordinator for Advanced English. These intellectual properties are, for me, more arousing than her physical looks. It seems that I have just met her even though she has been all around me for two years in the office. This new side of her brings a complicated fondness in me towards her. After all, I have always liked her all these years. One of my friends said that she is so perfect for me she could be a perfect bride in a sequel of My Best Friend’s Wedding.

Taking a risk, I asked her out a few times recently. The most recent outing was rather successful. I found her company almost pleasurable and self-fulfilling. Playing Uno together, we were just like sick teen couple who had just found each other in the internet. Maybe she is meant for me. Maybe she is not. I don’t have the guts and the right balls to reveal to her about my current feelings. Maybe it is too late.

Because her Thai boyfriend has already won this game.