Chapter 46

2 years ago

varshaoforange

@varshaoforange

—Tuesday, February 8, 2022, 8:30AM—

Aryan opened his eyes and immediately regretted it. His head throbbed and the light stung his eyes. Then everything that happened last night in the study flashed in his mind. Imlie trying to comfort him, getting him to talk, his head in her lap, and then the horrific attempt at a kiss. He was crazy. No, he wasn’t crazy, he was a horrible person. Who kisses someone else when drunk? Who tries to kiss someone after they’ve tried to comfort you? He sat up and tried to convince himself nothing had been ruined. She’d forgive him. In fact, she’d probably already forgiven him. She had to forgive him.

He looked at the time, to see if Imlie’d be awake by now. He’d go apologize to her again, properly.

“Shit!” His phone read 8:30. He’d not only slept in so much that he’d be late for work, Imlie’d probably already left for her exam by now. He ran into his bathroom and hurriedly brushed his teeth, and then showered as fast as he could.

Five minutes later he was running down the stairs, one sock on his foot, and the other in his hand.

“Maa!” He yelled, “I’m sorry. I slept in. I’m running late, I’ll just get coffee and some breakfast at—” He rushed into the dining room and stopped talking when he saw Imlie sitting at the table with Maa and Didi.

Arpita started laughing, “I love what you’ve done with your hair, UNB. Is it your new look?”

Aryan was still staring at Imlie, and from her expression he was sure his desperate pleas to himself that she’d forgiven him were in vain. He looked at Arpita, “What? Did you say something?”

Arpita walked to him and flattened his hair, “I said, you’ve forgotten to use the twenty pounds of gel you usually put on your hair.” She fixed it as much as she could with her hands and stood back to admire her handiwork, “There, it looks fine now. The rest of the face, though, nothing can be done to fix that. You’ll have to complain to Mata Rani.”

Aryan rolled his eyes, “Didi, please, I don’t have time for your jokes now. I’m running late.” He looked at Imlie again and chanced a question, “Imlie, do you need a ride to the office or are you going straight to your university? Actually, either way, it doesn’t matter. It’s on the way. I can drop you.”

Imlie stammered, “Right. Yes. College. Sorry, I meant yes I am going to college.” She took a breath, “I mean…I’ll wait in the car. Just—” Imlie gathered her things and started to head out of the room, but added, “you should still eat something though, ABP.” She fled the dining room and put on her shoes as fast as possible and headed outside to Aryan’s car.

‘What the hell?’ Imlie thought, ‘Was he just going to pretend nothing happened last night?’ She started pacing in front of the car, trying to make sense of the situation. Of course, he couldn’t say anything in front of Kaki Maa and Didi. Or, maybe he’d been so drunk he’d forgotten. How could he forget? She wanted to scream but then she saw Aryan heading towards her so she turned around quickly and faced the car door, waiting to hear the click of the doors unlocking. When they did, she got into the car quickly and didn’t say anything.

Aryan drove towards the university in silence. Though it was usual for him to not start any conversation, he started to panic at her silence. She was still uncomfortable, so uncomfortable that she couldn’t even talk to him anymore. Aryan pulled into the university’s parking lot and cursed whatever entity was listening for robbing him of the usual New Delhi traffic this morning.

Imlie clocked open her seatbelt and opened the car door. Aryan tried to come up with something to say. He couldn’t apologize to her now, it would look like cowardice if he rushed it. But he also couldn’t just say nothing at all.

“Good luck!” Aryan said. Actually, more like shouted.

Imlie jumped and looked at him, “Okay, sheesh, you don’t have to scream.” She laughed and got out of the car. Before she closed the door she leaned in and said, “Also, if I don’t do well on this exam because of you and your bottle of scotch, I’m going to pour the rest of that expensive whiskey down the drain. Just warning you.”

Aryan’s mouth twitched, but then he added, his voice level, “If you do that, I’ll cut the cost from your salary. Which means it’ll take at least three months for you to see one rupee again. Just warning you.”

She laughed and closed the door. He waved at her and then drove off. She smiled to herself and then headed to her classroom. She tried to focus on the exam, but all she could think about was how adorable Aryan looked when he was trying hard not to smile, but failed at it.

—Tuesday, February 8, 2022, 6:30PM—

Aryan got out of the car and walked towards the front door. He was taking as long as he could to get to it, because he needed to rehearse his apology until he had it perfect. It would work out great. He’d say, ‘Imlie, last night you were trying to do a nice thing, and instead I acted like an imbecile. I am sorry for that.’ It was short and to the point. Even in his head, however, he couldn’t add the often used, ‘It won’t happen again.’ If he said that out loud, if he even thought about saying it, it felt like he would prevent it from ever actually happening. It also wasn’t honest. He wanted it to happen again, badly. But every time he imagined it, he’d remember Imlie’s shocked expression, the way she’d pulled away, and he realized it would never happen. He didn’t know if Imlie was telling the truth to him, or herself, when she said she wasn’t in love with Aditya anymore. But Aryan decided she had probably been telling the truth when she’d said there was no room in her life for love anymore. He sighed, waiting in front of the door, not even taking out his keys to unlock it. ‘What was the point?’ he wondered. What exactly was the point in figuring out if he liked Imlie enough to tell her his feelings? What was the point in telling her at all? She wasn’t ready, in fact, she might never be ready. It was so obvious that all she was really focused on was her career and her degree. It wasn’t like she was running back to the Tripathis every other day to deal with a heartbroken Aditya, not like she used to rush to him before. Then Aryan’s mind turned to Shiv, specifically the sight of Imlie and Shiv smiling and laughing with each other. Laughing in his house, spending time together in every stupid bookstore and restaurant in Delhi that sold samosas. His blood boiled. He was Aryan Singh Rathore damn it, he knew he shouldn’t tell Imlie anything just out of jealousy. But he’d rather Imlie reject him outright than not get the chance to tell her anything at all and lose her from his life because of Shiv. What kind of name was Shiv, anyway? Just go by Shiva. Aryan shook his head and gave himself one last pep talk and opened the door to his house.

He crept inside, expecting to see Maa and Didi in the living room. But they weren’t there. Then he headed to the dining room, and they weren’t there either. He was about to call out to Maa, but thought better of it. He’d practiced his apology enough times, but a few more minutes of practice would be better anyway, best not to alert Imlie to his presence just yet. He headed to the kitchen to grab some water, because it seemed like Maa had sent the staff home for the evening. Aryan headed straight for the refrigerator and didn’t even notice Imlie was already in there until he’d heard her voice.

“Stop right there.” Imlie said.

“What the hell!” Aryan jumped and turned towards Imlie, his hand on the refrigerator handle still. “What is wrong with you?”

Imlie smiled sweetly, “Absolutely nothing is wrong with me. What’s wrong with you is that you’re going to drink cold water when you know full well it’s bad for you.” She walked to the sink and filled a glass of plain water for him. Then she walked to him and handed it to him. Aryan took it but he pouted, “There’s nothing wrong with wanting cold water. We live in a hot country, I like cold water. Tumse matlab?” (What’s it to you?)

Imlie crossed her arms and looked pointedly at the glass of water then at him, then gestured to him to drink it. Aryan sighed and drank the water.

Imlie smiled, “You’re very annoying when you get sick, and I don’t want to deal with it.”

Aryan made a face at her and sarcastically added, “How sweet. Thank you.”

Imlie grinned, “You’re welcome.”

There was an awkward silence in the conversation. Imlie didn’t know how to bring up last night. In fact, she wasn’t even sure if she should bring it up. How does one actually ask the question, ‘Remember when you tried to kiss me in a relatively drunken state last night, well could you tell me exactly why you did that?’ without insulting the other person? She fidgeted with her hands and looked back at Aryan but he broke the silence before she could.

“How was your exam?”

Imlie sighed in relief, something she could talk about without feeling embarrassed, “It went great! Luckily, I practiced responses with Shiv on all the topics that were on the exam, so it went by so smoothly it didn’t even feel like an exam.”

Aryan clenched his jaw, “Right. Shiv. Got it. Great.” Aryan smiled at her, but it evaporated before it reached his eyes.

Imlie waited for him to say something else, trying to judge whether or not he remembered last night. He didn’t say anything.

Aryan turned to leave, but Imlie stopped him, touching his arm briefly and then pulling it back, “Wait—”

Aryan turned back to her angrily, “What? Was there more praise of Delhi’s best lawyer that you need to share?”

Imlie stepped back, in shock, more at Aryan’s tone than what he’d actually said, “I—I don’t know why you’re angry. You’re the one who asked me about my exam? Actually—I wanted to…” she trailed off. She didn’t know how to say it. Should she say just come out and say, ‘I wanted to talk about last night,’ would that even work?

Aryan smiled, but it was a cold smile, “While I would love to hear more, I’m a little busy right now, so if your lectures on the health benefits of cold versus tap water and the benefits of having a great friend like Shiv Agarwal, are over. I’ll go get back to my work.” Aryan didn’t know why he was lying, he didn’t have any work. In fact, he’d specifically finished all his work before lunch today so he could spend the rest of the day planning for Imlie’s birthday. But just hearing that man’s name out of her mouth enraged him. It had made him do stupid things before, but now he realized he’d upgraded to hurtful. He looked at Imlie turn her expression from hurt to angry.

“Fine! Go. I was hoping we could talk about why you felt the need to try to kiss me last night but—”

Aryan interrupted her, “Galti hui mujhse. Mujhe maaf kardo. Main nashe mein tha, aur mujhe nahin pata tha ki main kitanee badee galatee kar raha tha. Aisa dobaara nahin hoga.” With that he left. (I made a mistake. Forgive me. I was drunk, and I didn’t realize what a big mistake I was making. It won’t happen again.) Imlie stood there in the kitchen, alone, furious, and hurt.

—Wednesday, February 9, 2022, 8:00AM—

Imlie left the breakfast table after just a few bites of food. She made up some story to Kaki Maa and Didi that she had a report for school to finish, so she needed to leave earlier. She hadn’t seen Aryan since yesterday evening, and she wanted to keep it that way. Imlie knew that he was probably stressed about work, that he was still dealing with losing Arvind and probably a hundred other little problems — but she didn’t feel like she was asking for too much from him. Just a conversation. Hell, if he couldn’t talk to her, he could do the bare minimum and not act as if every little thing she said or did annoyed him to no end.

She caught an auto and tried to stop thinking about Aryan. He hadn’t wanted to kiss her, fine. Imlie buried her head in her hands. It wasn’t fine. Damn her and her stupid brain, because right now all she wanted was for the conversation last night to have gone differently. Better yet, she wished she could turn back time and not have stopped Aryan the night before. Then she realized, even if she hadn’t stopped him, it might not have changed Aryan’s word last night. The fact of the matter was that he was just drunk and sad, and he’d clarified that. So, that was that. Imlie kept repeating this to herself until she got to the office, because she wouldn’t be able to focus on work if she didn’t drill yesterday out of her head.

Aryan walked downstairs towards the dining room, double checking if he’d put everything in his bag. When he entered the dining room he was met with someone smacking him, hard, on the back of his head.

“Ow! What the hell?” He looked at who’d slapped him and found a very angry Didi looking at him. “What was that for?”

Arpita responded, “That was for whatever crap you probably said or did to Imlie that made her look like someone stole her puppy today. What did you say to her? What did you do?”

Aryan rubbed the back of his head, he glared at his sister, but he didn’t answer her. Arpita pointed at his ears and looked at Narmada, “Maa, I was right. He did say something to her. His ears are turning red.”

Narmada looked at Aryan, for the first time in a long time she was actually angry with her son, “What did you do Aryan?”

Aryan stammered, he couldn’t lie to his mother, but he also didn’t want to tell the truth, “I have to go to work. Bye.” He ran out of the dining room and the house, leaving Arpita and Narmada fuming.

—Wednesday, February 9, 2022, 8:50AM—

Aryan was in a foul mood by the time he got to the office. The coffee he’d bought along the way was at least fifty times worse than the coffee he got at home or the office. The traffic had been a nightmare before and after his stop at the coffeeshop. And, obviously, there wasn’t a bubbly journalist trying to talk to him during every second of his commute. Fine, he may have gone overboard yesterday, but he wasn’t about to let Imlie’s cold shoulder technique work. She wanted to avoid him? Fine, he would avoid her too. Despite planning to not even glance in the direction of her desk when the elevator doors opened, Imlie’s desk was the first place Aryan looked. There she was, typing on her laptop. From this angle her back was to him. His eyes stayed on her until he reached his office door, and from here he was able to see her face. To anyone who didn’t know Imlie would assume she was fine, but from one look Aryan could tell she was in a worse mood than he was. She looked exhausted, angry, and sad all at the same time. Just then, Aryan’s secretary came up to him and started listing off his meetings for the day, and handing him files he needed to look over, and documents he needed to sign. She was loud enough that half the office could hear, and Imlie definitely could hear her. But she didn’t look towards him once. Aryan glared at his secretary, and she stopped talking immediately, judging correctly that her boss was not in the mood to be talked to or even perceived today. She went silently back to her desk. Aryan looked back at Imlie one last time, and then turned into his office, slamming the door behind him.

—Wednesday, February 9, 2022, 2:00PM—

Imlie had made it five hours without looking towards Aryan’s office. However, she’d only lasted about fifteen minutes before her mind drifted to him again. Then her phone pinged twice, she unlocked it. There were two texts from Shiv:

Shiv: Your exam was yesterday, and no text from you? Was it okay?

Shiv: Also, I was bored, so I left my office and now I’m downstairs waiting for you with two cups of chai. If you have the time, take a break? If not, I’ll just drink both cups.

Imlie laughed, despite herself. This guy really knew to show up at the exact right moment.

Imlie: How did you know this was the exact moment I needed chai? Come upstairs, we have a break room.

Shiv: on my way!

A couple minutes later the elevator doors opened and Shiv saw Imlie waiting for him. He smiled, seeing her brought this warm feeling to Shiv, as if he were putting his hands in front of a fire on a freezing day. He handed her one of the to-go cups of chai and gestured to her to lead the way to the break room. Shiv was happy to see Imlie, but as he walked besides her, he realized that something was wrong. She wasn’t as happy or as chatty as she usually was. Shiv worried that perhaps her exam hadn’t gone well and then he irrationally cursed himself for not prepping her harder for it.

Imlie gratefully took the cup from him and took a sip immediately, “Ahh, I needed that. Thank you.” She led him to the break room. At the moment there were only a couple people milling around one of the three round tables, and one person making coffee. Imlie and Shiv grabbed seats at one table and Shiv smiled as Imlie took another big sip of the chai.

Shiv laughed, “I think I should have brought a few more cups of chai. Are you okay?”

Imlie set down the cup and sighed, “Yes. I’m fine.”

Shiv leaned back in the chair, “That was a pretty big sigh for someone who’s ‘fine.’ Are you really okay? Did the exam not go well?”

Imli shook her head, “It’s nothing. And the exam went great. I should be getting my results today, actually. I had two other exams yesterday too, but my history one was the one I was most worried about but because of you it ended up being the easiest.”

Shiv smiled at the compliment, “I didn’t do much of anything, you’re the one who asked so many questions, you’d think your professor was asking for a twenty page essay for the exam. So, if it’s not school that’s bothering you, did something go wrong here?” He whispered the last bit, not sure if it was an ideal location to ask Imlie about problems she might be having at work.

Imlie chuckled, “You don’t have to whisper, nothing went wrong. It’s just…” She looked at Shiv. He might be the best person to ask for advice right now, even if it was slightly modifying to have to ask him this. “Okay, I’m not going to pretend I’m asking for advice about a friend when it’s really about me. I don’t have the energy. If someone in your life is important to you, but they—“ Imlie stopped mid sentence because her phone beeped. She’d gotten an email. “One second, my editor said he’d email with comments and a new deadline, it’s probably that.”

Shiv nodded, “No prob.”

Imlie unlocked her phone, it wasn’t her editor, it was her university, she opened the spreadsheet with her cohort’s grades, and then she stood up and cheered. She’d gotten above 90 on all three exams.

Shiv laughed, “You get really happy from work emails, huh?”

Imlie laughed, shaking her head, and then walked around the table to show him her phone, “No, I just got my grades, I aced all three exams! Now I don’t have anything to really worry about until the final term exams in May!”

She jumped and did a little dance after Shiv looked at her phone. Shiv laughed and then extended his hand out, “Congrats! Well deserved, of course.”

Imlie took his hand, “Thank you. I have to call Amma, and Kaki Maa and Didi, and I should tell…” she trailed off before she could say Aryan’s name. Her gaze went to the break room window and she tried to get a look at Aryan from where she was sitting. All she could really see was the top of his head from behind his monitor.

Shiv noticed the glance and realized Imlie’s mood wasn’t related to school or work. It was Aryan related. He followed her eyes to Aryan’s office as well, and then looked back at her. The gracious and rational part of him knew he should ask her about it, but there was a voice in the back of his head telling him to avoid the subject. A voice that he shouldn’t listen to, but in that moment, he did.

“So, after you call everyone and rightfully brag about your amazing achievement, do you want to go out to celebrate? Didi actually is meeting some of her friends tonight, at that same club where we met for the first time, remember? I know you don’t drink, so I don’t know how much fun you had that night, but I do remember the food was good?”

Imlie looked back to Shiv, she apologized for her zone out, “Sorry, I’ve just been…swamped with work. Right. You said party? Tonight? Uhh…sure. I’d love to see Priya Didi again, I haven’t been able to meet her since her interview actually. What time?”

Again that voice in Shiv’s head told him to avoid asking questions when he knew he wouldn’t like the answers. He smiled, “How about 7? I know you’re probably an early-sleeper, like me. Which is a good thing—usually. So you can leave by 8 or maybe 9? I wanted to suggest a celebration even if you didn’t get your results in this soon, because you mentioned your birthday was coming up…so 7 it is?”

Imlie smiled, not really hearing anything except 7, she nodded, “Okay, seven it is. I’ll meet you there?”

Shiv stammered, “Sure, or I could pick you up from here or your house.”

Imlie shook her head, “No need. I’ll go home after work and change and meet Priya Didi and you there.”

Shiv nodded, deciding her showing up was enough, he didn’t need to fight every battle. Then he added, “You don’t have to change, though. What you’re wearing is fine.”

Imlie looked down at her clothes, she was wearing a normal salwar kameez, like she usually did. Of course, it was normal and boring, but it was just professional enough for work, which is why she bought outfits like these. Simple, efficient, and most importantly, comfortable. She remembered feeling out of place the last time she was at that club with Priya Didi and her friends, but she’d gotten over it when she realized no one in the group cared what she was wearing. Still, it couldn’t hurt to go out of her comfort zone, after all, how many other times would she get to celebrate amazing grades with a literal Bollywood star?

Imlie laughed, “I wasn’t going to change into anything drastic, I don’t actually own anything like that. I have a notorious experience with Western dresses. But…I did buy this pantsuit once, and it’s nice enough to wear out, I think?”

Shiv smiled, “Honestly, whatever you feel comfortable wearing is what you should wear. But, I want to hear more about this notoriety you speak of.” He leaned in, as if her story was top-secret and scandalous.

Imlie mimicked him, “Well, one would think being divorced would mean I would spend my whole life remembering the horrible things about my marriage, but lately all I’m trying to remember are the funny things.”

Shiv nodded sagely, “As one should do with all relationships that have ended. Go on.”

Imlie grinned, “Okay, so there was this party, where I was supposed to dance with Aditya. I told you about Malini, right, well anyway, she did my makeup…horribly. As you know, she was a horrible big sister, blah blah boring boring. But the real problem for me, and I didn’t tell anyone the whole night, the stupid dress I wore was like two sizes too big! I had to use a stapler I found to cinch it.”

Shiv laughed, “A stapler? Why? I know it’s not easy, but you didn’t find safety pins?”

Imlie shook her head, “I wish I had found safety pins, I did look though. I just couldn’t find one. Not one safety pin, in a house full of women who wore only saris. It was ridiculous.”

The two of them talked for a few more minutes, but then Imlie realized if she was going to go out tonight, she’d be smart to finish as much of her work for tomorrow, today. She gulped down the rest of the chai and tossed the cup in the dustbin, “Sorry, Shiv. But break time is now over. Not all of us get to be fancy lawyers with easy hours.”

Shiv laughed, “Fancy? Easy hours? Me? The only reason I didn’t message you yesterday after your exam was because I was in depositions and meetings from six in the morning yesterday to eight at night. It was brutal. Though, I do have a fancy sister, so I get to pretend to be fancy sometimes.”

Imlie laughed and the two of them headed back to the elevator. Imlie added, “Honestly though, knowing your sister, even a little bit, makes me feel so cool. But, don’t tell her this, I didn’t like the two previous romance movies she was in.”

Shiv laughed, then raised up his right hand, “I swear, I’ll never let her know. Why didn’t you like them?”

Imlie frowned slightly, “They were such bummers. The trailers billed them as romances, but then they both had tragic endings. In the first one, the character your sister plays, she’s been in love with the guy for ages, and when they finally confess, he ends up dying! Of cancer! Like half the movie is about his cancer diagnosis.”

Shiv chuckled, “I think that’s what they call a bittersweet ending, Imlie.”

Imlie rolled her eyes, “Shiv, if people wanted bittersweet things, they could go buy some dark chocolate. I’m a stickler when it comes to movies, give me a happy ending or I hate it.”

Shiv raised an eyebrow, “So is that the only reason you like Austen novels? Imlie, you have to read some American authors, or actually, take a Shakespeare class. The catharsis you can feel, with a good tragic ending, ufff it’s like nothing else.”

Imlie shook her head, as they two of them waited for the elevator, “I’ll try what you recommend, but I doubt you’re going to change my mind. I think it’s probably because my own life has been such a tragic comedy of errors, that I don’t want to read about it in fiction.”

Shiv looked at her, holding back a laugh.

Imlie lifted her chin, “What? Not funny?”

He let out his laugh, and then added, “No it was funny, the problem is, you say stuff like that, which could be funny or could be very messed up, and honestly, I don’t know if I’m allowed to laugh or not.”

Imlie pretended to wipe dust off her shoulder, “Be like me, Shiv. Laugh at the personal tragedies. But then, cry ten times a day anyway.”

The elevator doors opened and Imlie waved bye to Shiv. As the doors closed, Shiv added, “I’ll see you tonight!” Imlie smiled and walked back to her desk. She was so grateful to Shiv, the one, completely uncomplicated friend she had in Delhi. But it only took two minutes after Shiv had left for Imlie’s mood to drift back into its’ previous state and now she didn’t even have chai to cheer her up.

Aryan knew he was an idiot. But as they say, being aware of your asinine behavior, and actually changing your asinine behavior — two very different things. And Aryan knew that he was only capable of the former right now, not the latter. There were dozens of points throughout today that he could have gone up to Imlie and apologized. He could have called her into his office. Or smarter yet, he could have tried to talk to her outside the office. But he was a coward, and he knew it. And then came Shiv. Somehow, Imlie’s face, which had been the most deflated he’d ever seen, and Aryan had seen Imlie sad. He realized it wasn’t something he could actually brag about, but he could talk for hours on the different ways to tell if Imlie was feeling sad, or happy, or angry, or hungry. During the morning and early afternoon, Aryan couldn’t go longer than twenty minutes without looking over at Imlie’s desk, hoping beyond hope that her mood had changed. He knew his cowardice had reached unprecedented peaks when he’d realized that Imlie had skipped lunch. When she was sad or worried, Aryan knew that Imlie would rather be run over by a car than eat anything. Then, miraculously, at around 2 in the afternoon, Imlie’d smiled. But a few minutes later, Aryan realized why Imlie had smiled, and his mood plummeted even further than it already had from this morning. He’d noticed them talk for a while in the break room, and Imlie’s mood only seemed to get better. Finally, he saw that Imlie was leading him back to the elevator, Aryan decided he had to get over his stubbornness now, he opened his office door and headed towards Imlie. Aryan didn’t think it was possible for him to feel more ready to punch Shiv in his face, but hearing him shout, “I’ll see you tonight!” from the elevator, really did the impossible. He turned around and walked back into his office.

—Wednesday, February 9, 2022, 6:30PM—

Aryan noticed Imlie leaving the office, and he could have left with her, driven her home, talked to her — but instead, he decided to be stubborn, and convinced himself he had work to do still. His phone rang, it was Dev.

“Hey Dev, what’s going on?”

“Aryan, yea. I’m heading out to go shopping with Radhika for Imlie’s birthday present. Radhika’s wondering if we should get her books or something else? I told her obviously every woman needs jewelry, but then Radhika yelled at me for being sexist. Tell me I’m right, Imlie likes jewelry right?”

Aryan sighed, “Hate to break this to you, but Imlie doesn’t give a damn about jewelry. But if you are going to get her jewelry, she wears simple stuff every day, silver, not gold — I’m sure she’d like that.”

Dev sighed, “Ok, that makes sense. Man, I hate shopping. I wish I knew Imlie well enough to just hand her an envelope of cash, but she wouldn’t take that from me would she?”

Aryan chuckled, “No, she definitely wouldn’t.”

Dev’s mood suddenly changed, “Wait a second…lover boy. What are you getting her?”

Aryan stopped laughing, “What? Lover boy? Seriously?”

Dev groaned, “Please, stop proving your sister’s naamkaran of UNB correct, just tell me you’re finally telling her you like her. That’s why you’re planning this party, right? Do not tell me you’re wasting this golden opportunity.”

Aryan rubbed his temples, first his sister, then his mother, now even his friends were bugging him, “I don’t…” He trailed off. He couldn’t even bring himself to say it now. He used to be able to say it easily, ‘I don’t like her.’ ‘I don’t love her.’

Dev laughed, “Yea man, all the people I know who are not in love find it really hard to admit it to themselves that they’re not in love…that was sarcasm by the way. You’re a goner. And it’s been obvious for ages now, and you barely talk to me.”

Aryan finally shared a worry he’d been afraid to actually say out loud for days, perhaps weeks. “Dev, what do I do when she says no?”

Dev sighed, “Buddy, she’s not going to say no. I’ve seen how she looks at you, I’ve seen how she talks to you. She’s more comfortable with you than she is with anyone, yes even the lawyer you complained about.”

Aryan shook his head, “No, Dev, listen to me. You don’t know her, like I do.”

Dev laughed, interrupting Aryan, “Yet another reason for her to say yes.”

Aryan groaned, “No you’re not getting me. She went through…a lot. She is…currently going through a lot, actually. She has school, work, and a whole family of ex-in-laws she can’t seem to get rid of. And even when she does try to move past them, her ex-husband comes back on his knees. I’m not saying that she wants to go back to him. I’m pretty sure she shut that door for good, I’m just saying it messes with her head. She says stuff like ‘I’m broken,’ and ‘I don’t think I need love in my life anymore.’ She’s…very sad.” Aryan ended somewhat nonsensically. Dev couldn’t be mad at him, Aryan was horrible at explaining things like this.

Dev paused, just letting the dead air fill the space between him and his friend, because he was honestly very close to coming over to Aryan’s office and smacking him.

After a few seconds, Aryan asked, “Hello? Dev are you still there?”

Dev said, “Yea, I’m still here. I’m just trying to figure out if you were always this stupid when it came to women, or if this is a recent development from spending too much time in board meetings or at Rathore Enterprises’ more chemically dangerous factories. Did you pick up a disease from a petri dish at Rathore Pharma, by any chance? You’re telling me ‘Imlie is sad’ as if you’re some bursting bubble of joy?”

Aryan hadn’t dated in ages, he hadn’t even seen any comically inaccurate romantic comedies in years either, he’d never been a fan, “Ok but, she’s generally a happy person. If that makes sense?”

Dev said, “No it doesn’t, but continue.”

“When she’s happy, it’s like the people around her are finally breathing fresh air. You’ve met her, you see it, right? When Imlie laughs, I don’t have the right words, but it’s…it’s like when we were in that advanced accounting class together, and we were horrible at it, but then the professor got really sick, and the final exam was canceled. Do you remember how that felt?”

“Wow. Woooow. Such amazing metaphors and you’re telling me you’re not in love?”

Aryan groaned, “No, the point wasn’t that. I lost my point. Wait—the point was that she’s usually happy, but like you said, I am…I’m not happy like her. I just say the wrong stuff all the time. I don’t actually know—”

Dev laughed, interrupted Aryan again, “Yea, because every other man knows exactly how to deal with this. Your problems are so unique, Aryan Singh Rathore.”

Aryan sighed, he didn’t know why he expected Dev to be helpful, “I’m hanging up. You’re horrible at this.”

Dev said, “Wait wait…just confess. Flowers, chocolates, jewelry, her favorite food, anything!”

Aryan rolled his eyes, “Bye!” He hung up the phone.