For the love of OJ

One fine summer day when the girl was enjoying her much needed summer vacation,watching her favorite episode of FRIENDS on the telly (sipping OJ )the door bell rang. Not wanting to miss the dialogue between Ross and Rachel as they fought over the tiny t shirt after the breakup she hollered "Mom,could you please answer for me"

"Why?Is there some superglue gluing your butt to that sofa?Get up and answer it yourself" came back a voice from the kitchen

Muttering to herself that she would never vote for the lady in the kitchen as the mother of the year the girl got up and opened the door. There stood "Funny man" her best friend along with a tall,lanky good looking guy whom the Funny man introduced as his high school friend. They just had a flat tire and needed to borrow the girl's bike in order to drop the tall lanky guy to a job interview.

Just as she was about to drop in the keys into the hands of the Funny man and get back to Rachel or Ross the mom came in from the kitchen and pleased to see she had visitors. Having been feeding a batch of unappreciative ingrates at home she always appreciated some compliments which Funny man always showered sincerely. "Is something cooking Auntie?smells sooo goood" Funny man said with his nose up in the air. Mom pleased as a punch welcomed them both right in to taste her new batch of samosas. "But mom,they need to go don't they?they have a job interview" the girl started hoping her lazy afternoon plan would not get foiled.

"Come on,how much time does it take to eat samosas? It's even good for jumpy nerves" Funny man declared ushering in the reluctant friend of his too inside.

Funny man was a chatterbox,he could never sit even for few seconds without uttering a word and you would know from a distance that he is in the room just by hearing his loud voice crackling with laughter. Whereas this other guy was rather silent,kept to himself,hardly participated much in the conversation except when it turned to some geeky topic like the latest laptop or some gadget. There the girl thought she had him all figured out,this was one of those nerdy guys. Perhaps a guy who was always studious,topped his class,and kept to himself with no girlfriends or perhaps he was just being a big fat snob. He is so not my type she decided wondering how is it that Funny man and Mr. Nerdy guy were thickest of friends ,they seemed really poles apart(It was only a matter of time before she discovered how wrong she was about him)

When mom asked if the Mr. Nerdy guy would like some coffee or tea he replied "hmm..I don't drink coffee or tea ,can I have some OJ perhaps".

" Surprise,surprise. Your friend can talk. You know if I was the person interviewing your friend I would most surely never hire him. "the girl whispered to the Funny man. "You just don't know him, he has a sharp tongue to match his sharp brains" he retorted. The girl rolled her eyes and sat back watching Mr. Nerdy who kept looking at his watch all the time. Snob,rude and obnoxious yes that's what he is and he doesn't even drink Coffee,can he get any more boring? thought the girl

While mum went in to make coffee for Funny man ordering the girl to pour in some OJ for the friend. Why couldn't he drink coffee like normal people she thought as she opened the fridge door to fetch the carton only to find that it was empty. Before she could use that as a alibi mum came in and pointed to some fresh oranges which were lying inside the fridge and asked the girl to make some fresh juice using them. "Perfect" thought the girl "Not only I miss the show,I even get to make fresh juice for a perfectly unfriendly rude stranger. Could the day get any better?"

She inadvertently took out all her frustration on the oranges and squeezed them well into the bowl. After 5 minutes the juice was ready and she filled it up in a tall glass and handed it to Mr. Nerdy.

He tasted the juice and somehow the girl noticed his face grew a bit paler. She wondered whether the juice had enough sugar and tried to recall whether she mistook salt for sugar by any chance which was quite a possibility given the girl's scanty ventures into the kitchen. Wouldn't that be fun if she did she thought wickedly for a moment. Then she put out her most bright smile and asked " Is something wrong?did I forget to add in sugar?"

First time since he came Mr. Nerdy seemed to relax and gave a smile and asked " Is this the first time you made this?"

The nerve of the guy she thought and said "Yes,first time for anyone other than myself. Is it bad?"

The smile didn't falter and he said "No,it's perfect" and drank the whole juice without asking anything. The girl wondered why couldn't he smile more often than being grumpy when he had such a nice smile.

After that he and Funnyman got up to leave and to the girl's surprise Mr. Nerdy winked at the girl and with an amused look said " Good OJ,maybe next time I'm in town I can drop by for another glass!Thanks" . "Whoa!I ought to start marketing my juice as a cure for all grumpiness. Where did that come from?surely I didn't switch his juice with dad's beer in the fridge" she thought watching them both ride away on her bike. As she made her way inside home still thinking about Mr. Nerdy she was confronted by the mom.

"WHAT? " her mom said shaking her head in disbelief holding the glass of juice the girl made onto her face "You really gave this to that poor boy?did you even taste it before giving it ?I bet you literally squeezed out all the juice from oranges including the skin isn't it?silly girl!come here and taste this" the girl tasted it and almost fell off her chair,the OJ tasted horrible,even bitter than a bitter gourd juice. "Ewww..but he said it was really nice and he drank the whole glass!!" she said

"Maybe because he was too nice to say that it was bad to your face. Poor guy,you sent him to his interview after giving him THIS" Mom kept muttering making the girl feel guilty as hell. "Why didn't he say anything?" the girl continued to wonder. Either he was too nice or had weird taste buds or he was simply nutty as a fruitcake Hmph!

No prizes for guessing what happened later. After a long courtship that followed the girl is now married to the guy who willingly drank the bitter OJ she served him that fateful day,he still continues to compliment all her worst dishes but adds in the phrase "Like your first OJ Fuzzy" to soften the blow!