Chhavi sits in the passenger seat swiftly. Because he decided that it was a good idea to lend my car to Sasha, I am taking his car to lunch.
“Seriously, is something wrong? Do you want to talk about it?”
He shakes his head in a no.
“I just have low energy today,” he says. “I will miss you.”
“I will see you soon, hm?” I say, trying to comfort him.
He nods with a smile and bends down to peck my lips. My eyes widen slightly, knowing Chhavi or my mom could see us. But I let him do it, too down bad for him.
“I love you. Always remember that.”
I smile before going and sitting down in the car.
I can’t wait to say these words back to him soon.
Aisha Kapoor
Chhavi looks at me with a piercing gaze as we settle down in the cafe nearby her university.
I am familiar with this area, and thankfully it is not that far away from our house, so if she ever needs our help, we can be there on time. However, I just hope she doesn’t take that as an excuse to show up whenever she wants.
I would love for her to respect my boundaries and establish some for herself.
“What’s wrong?” I ask her as we place our orders.
I have been to this cafe a lot of times during my own university days, and I loved the comfortable seating of this place. It is warm and homely and doesn’t break your wallet when you visit too often. Plus the food and service are authentic and top-notch.
“Nothing,” she says, shaking her head. “I am just not used to this. Plus, I am stressed about university.”
“That’s understandable,” I say. I know what she means; I was so nervous and scared too when I first came here. I remember, just in the first week of me being here, I wanted to go back home because I was so lonely and so scared.
But then I found my own home here with my people. I found my Reyansh, and that makes that one week of cold sweats so worth it.
“Just make sure you enjoy every single moment of this,” I tell her with a smile. “It will be so worth it at the end. Don’t be afraid to talk to people, and knowing you, you will have an easy time gelling with people.”
She nods with a smile.
“You know I have never had a boyfriend,” she says, and I wonder where this conversation is going. “Everyone kept such a keen eye on us back home. It always made me slightly jealous of the freedom you got.”
Well, I don’t know what to say to that. It is not like I had an aim to make a boyfriend here. I wanted to make my career. But God had some other plan for me.
I have always heard that if a city or a place calls you to it, it means that your destiny is written there.
I always used to yearn to move to London, and I guess it was because a part of me knew that my destiny was written here. My destiny was and is Reyansh.
“Well, now you have all the freedom you want,” I say with a smile. “Just don’t misuse it. Don’t do drugs or get pregnant. The rest of it is fine.”
She chuckles, and I feel the tension dissipating from around us.
Our food comes in, and I am so grateful because not only am I starving but also we don’t have to make any more small talk.
“Is everything okay between you and Reyansh?” she asks out of nowhere, and I choke on my food. She passes me a glass of water, and I wonder why she is asking me that.
“Why do you ask?” I question
As far as I know,Maawouldn’t have discussed it with anyone from our family, least of all her. She keeps such things private. I think if I got divorced, even then she wouldn’t have told anyone.
