Episode 18

I wake up when my alarm goes off. I get up; go out to get milk packets and newspaper. I go rubbing my eyes and only when I come back I notice the man that was sprawled on my couch. It is Karthik. Yesterday's events come crashing to me and for some insane reason I blush and even my stomach knots. He is on the couch wearing a tee shirt, either he always carried a spare or this was planned, and he seems to have picked up my spare sheets. It did not look planned, so he has a spare set of clothes, probably in his car. He seems sound asleep. Also, I have only one huge wardrobe in my entire apartment which had all my clothes along with necessities like towels, sheets etc. I blush freshly at the thought of Karthik browsing through my wardrobe.

I tip toe around him leaving the paper on the coffee table and the milk in the kitchen counter. I go brush, wash my face, drink almost half litre of water and go to the kitchen. I put the milk for boiling for my morning cup of coffee. While the milk is boiling, quite obviously, my thoughts stray to Karthik and his news of his ex.

I sigh. I know I have never liked anyone on a level more than a crush. But the way I am handling this is ridiculous. I know Karthik is a good guy, my parents did a background check and all before we confirmed on the marriage. I know a lot of things about him. But I did not know what someone who knew a person normally knows. Until yesterday, it did not even strike me to ask. Is this why I am still not comfortable with calling him as my boyfriend?

Liking someone is so different than being in a relationship. Liking someone is really different from caring for someone. In many ways, Karthik has gotten to know me. He has guessed, forced or irritated me into giving him information.

I need time to process this info about myself. I need coffee before I do any processing of any sort. The milk boils in sometime and I make a proper filter coffee. Yes, I started making filter coffee now, one can stand instant only so much. I make an extra stronger one, carry it in a huge mug and come out of the kitchen. Karthik is still asleep on the couch. I go to the balcony in my room. I have a chair there for just such occasions. Okay, I didn’t put it there; it was there when I moved, so there is a chair on the balcony for just such occasions.

I keep contemplating on my inexperience. But the most worrying thing is the blind trust I have on Karthik. Sure, he is a good guy. So far, so good. But ..

I go around in circles in my head. Of course, I have to spend a lot of effort in getting to know him. I not only like him, I do care for him. But I have to know him. I mean the guy is sleeping in my couch.

I sigh. I sip coffee and start plotting how to catalyze this process, maybe Karthik should be fed his own medicine. Being bossy and forceful could work.

I get lost in my thoughts and don’t realize someone entering the balcony. We all know who that someone is, so it is pretty dumb not being aware of him.

'Good Morning Pri', I hear in the most delicious sleepy voice. I turn back with a startle and see him. He has on the tee shirt I saw and track pants, his feet were bare. He has large feet and the short sleeved tee shows just how muscled he is. The sight of his tall, broad-shouldered form with large feet, muscly body and ruffled hair is so manly that the woman in me takes full notice of and is fascinated, enthralled even.

Since I don’t reply and since he is not as dumb as me, but very attentive and discerning, he gives a smug smile. Shit. That smile is downright heart-throb. I blink. His smile widens. If he isn’t just standing there, I might have fanned myself. He walks into and leans on the railing right in front of me. I swallow.

'Good Morning', I mumble. Even the mumble has a lot of air in the sound. Shit. I clear my throat, look up at him, smile and say a 'Hi', thankfully managing a better tone.

'Hello Priya', he says and unceremoniously swipes my coffee mug from my hand and sips my coffee. Just like that the spell breaks.

'There is such a thing called asking you know'.

'Priya, can I have your coffee?', he sounds teasing. There is nothing playful about my morning caffeine requirement. I fold my hands against my chest and glare at him.

'Nuh. You can't have mine. I will make you one, once I am done.'

'Okay, let me have just one sip?', he asks and I nod. His one sip is such a huge sip that when he returns the mug, it is empty.

I glare at him with as much heat I can muster. He laughs. 'Chill Pri. You are so grouchy in the morning'. I continue glaring. 'Okay okay. I will make more coffee', he says and starts walking. I start following him.

He puts the milk for boiling again earning points for it as I like steaming hot coffee and it needs to be steaming for a filter coffee.

I lean against the counter watching him prepare the coffee and cannot stop myself from asking him this.

'Were you so bossy always?'.

'I am not bossy really', he says. Right.

'How did your ex handle your bossiness?', I ask relentlessly.

He takes it in good humour. The corners of his mouth turn up in an almost smile.

'I know what I want. I know how to get it done. I also happen to be right most of the time. If that feels bossy to you…'

We have head the size of a huge hybrid pumpkin don’t we? 'I believe that wasn’t my question..', am I probing? Betcha.

He smiles. 'She did have a problem with my attitude too. I think she handled it by listening to me, always'.

'Nice try!'

He laughs.

'Do you have anything else to say to me? Like the whole ex thing?', I ask.

'Is this what you were thinking so seriously?'.

'Nuh. I was just observing nature'. Right. He shakes his head and laughs. Of course, he knows the truth. The man is irritating.

'I had a rebound thing immediately after. That didn’t last long though. Have been single for the last three and odd years.'

Right. More women.

He laughs. Did I say that aloud? That or my expression was loud enough. He finishes making more coffee, puts them into two mugs, hands one to me.

'Don't beat yourself up Pri. You have been single for way too long and you don’t know how to be a couple and it is probably a little late to learn voluntary commitment. Don’t worry about it. I will handle it.'

Right. 'Maybe I don’t want you to handle it?'

And voluntary commitment? He is almost 5 years older than me. But aren’t men still supposed to be comparatively immature?

'If you handle it, we will be moving so slow that if we enter a race, it will appear as if we are moving back'.

I make a rude hand gesture and he bursts out laughing. Not only that, he reaches forward and pinches my nose playfully painlessly. Right. I abuse, he is amused.

'You are cute you know.'

I bite my own teeth, ' I am not cute', I say. He just shakes his head and does the nose pinching thing again. I close my eyes to calm myself. I am not sure if I should like this or not.

'I met with an accident a couple of years back. It was quite serious. I had a shattered leg and multiple fractures'

Ohh. I open my eyes. I can't imagine him being in an accident. It might have already happened, but I don’t think I like it.

He goes on though. 'I had a metal plate in my leg until last year and it was removed', he points at his left leg. I reach forward and squeeze his arm. He nods.

'I have traveled to New York, San Francisco, Seoul and Geneva for work. I had amazing experiences and also discovered that I enjoy new places, people, culture and the whole exploration.'

'Niiice. We can travel a lot then.. I would enjoy that too. I want to visit Greece', I tell him.

Karthik sips on his coffee for a couple of seconds. 'Yes, I will take you, wherever you want to go', he says, pretty seriously.

Oh my. I go a little weak on my knees. He sounds serious. Are we in a serious relationship? I don’t want to know now. Things are moving so fast. Shit, I sounded like I was making future plans with him.

'You make good coffee', I tell him.

He accepts my diversion. 'Thanks babe', he says. Babe? Oh my. I hope I don’t swoon.

He puts his mug on the counter, pulls mine too and places it on the counter.

'You want to know anything else?', he asks.

'Not right now at least. No wait.. How do you have these clothes', I ask pointing at his tee and track.

'I carry a gym bag in my car. I work out whenever I have time. Luckily these were fresh..'

Lucky indeed.

'I have an idea', he says. I look at him with the implied question on my face.

'I am planning to work from home today. I haven’t slept properly yesterday or the day before. I am going to work some more and take the rest of the day off. I am just too tired to put in a full day'.

'Okay?'

'Do you mind if I worked from here?'

Ohhh. Ummm… okay.. but…

'Maybe you can work from here too?'

Ohhh.. Umm… Wow…

'Priya?', he prompts.

I am a bit scared. I mean, we aren’t moving too fast?

'If you aren’t comfortable Pri, you just have to say it', he smiles reassuringly.

'Won't your parents look for you?'

'I am not a kid Pri. They don’t question me'

Wait, I have a lot of work. I mean, I am doing a crucial task at work.

'Today I have a lot of work Karthik.. I need to get to work…', I say. It is true too.

I do have lot of work. Can I do it from home? Possibly. Do I want to work from home and spend time with him WHOLE day? I don’t want to answer that question at this point.

He smiles a beautiful smile. This is not the Smile. This is not his you-are-cute smile. This is his am-so-right smile. Damn.

'Okay. If you have to get back to work', he says.

'Ya. I have to', I say. His am-so-right smile widens.

I don’t know why I say the next thing. 'You are welcome to stay here.. If…'

He looks at me as if he is judging whether I mean it or not. I hope I have my poker face on, I have been practising it.

'Thanks Pri. But not today.'

He insists on dropping me to work and my protests aren’t heard. I go to work and he goes back to his place.

I have to complete my feasibility report by today. After a lot of tries at diverting myself from thinking about you-know-who, I finally attempt to get some work done. Everything goes fine. The architecture was of course fine, barring very minor changes. I send the information to Sukanya. I also make minor suggestions based on what was expected from the domain modeling. Sukanya does not feel those changes are required. Well, I tried giving suggestions. This sucks.

With this, my part in this proposal is almost done. I am unsure what to do next. I was borrowed from my usual work of maintaining and enhancing a product to do this. I don’t think I would enjoy going back. It looks like I am back to square one. Maybe I should try something new. I schedule a meeting with Shan, who still happens to be my manager.

'Hey Priya. Tell me. What is this about? I have a meeting to get to', Shan starts of right away, not even a smirk-smile.

'Shan, I wanted to discuss with you about my current role in the project…'

'Yes?'

'I don’t want to keep doing the same. I want a change'

'Okay. Tell me what do you want?'

'I want to know if there are any other opportunities'

'There are always opportunities Priya. Do you have something specific in your mind?'

'Ummm… Not really. I want to do something different and new'.

Shan looks at me as if I have not grown just two horns, but a full set of antlers.

'You have been working with Sukanya. Isn’t that different and new?'

'Yes...'

'You have been identified as part of the team that will work on such things along with regular project work. Apparently Sukanya is impressed with you'.

He sounds like he cannot comprehend such a thing. Right.

'Ya, I have been enjoying it.. but..'

'You have just started on this. Maybe you should spend some more time on this? Do you want to let me know after spending time on both your regular work and working with Sukanya's team?'

'Maybe'

'Let me know three or four months down the line Priya.'

What he says makes sense. 'Okay', I say.

Shan leaves. I sit in the meeting room playing back the conversation. Like any typical manager Shan has found a way to make feel he has done something for me without actually doing anything. Damn.

While I contemplate on my stupidity in detail, Anitha calls me.

'Hey Pri. Whatsup'

'Hi Anitha. When are you back?'

'I will be back tomorrow Priya.'

'Kewl, I thought you will stay the weekend at home though'

'I thought so too, but…'

'What happened?'. She remains silent for a few seconds.

'My parents know about Naren…'

Ohhh. 'They wanted to meet him, to talk about wedding'

'Oh no'

'I ended up telling them what happened. They feel I am being stupid.'

'Oh no'. Anitha's parents were unexpectedly modern. I cannot imagine telling my parents I am seeing someone let alone explain them about my fight with the said someone.

'Ya. What do you think Priya?'

She is asking for my opinion?

'Honestly? I understand where you are coming from. If Naren is going to ask you to change the way you dress, you don’t know what else you should change about yourself.'

'Exactly. It is such a basic thing you know. If it can bother him so much…'

'I get it. I completely get it. But you also like him right? I mean love him?'

'Yes Priya. I do. But…'

'What is the problem really Anitha?'

She doesn’t say anything. I try to guess. I replay the conversation where she said she likes Naren as is, that she wouldn’t change much about him, except of course this particular trait.

'Do you feel, by any chance, that you are the only one giving up things for this relationship?'

'Maybe', she says.

'I am not sure Anitha. I don’t know you guys that well. But could it be that you want him to meet you halfway rather than him telling you what he wants?'

Anitha sighs. 'It hurt me a lot Pri, that he would get so pissed off for a dress and would want to take a break…'

When she put it that way, 'I agree Anitha. I know he has been a complete ass about it. But maybe he doesn’t know what is expected of him? Maybe he thinks you should respect his wishes? He probably has no clue this is how you are perceiving his behavior'

'Wow Pri. I did not know you were this mature?', Anitha says.

'Nice try in stalling. Am I right? Is that what is happening?'. I hear her snort but she remains silent. 'Anitha, am not saying you guys have to get together. Maybe you should have an open and honest talk before you go either which way you know..'

'Alright alright. I will try'

'Try? Just try? How long have you been with Naren?'

'Almost a year. Okay.I will talk okay?'

'When?'

'What? I need to plan that too?'

'I don’t trust you to do that within acceptable timeframe.'

'What is the acceptable timeframe?', I can hear her rolling her eyes.

'Tomorrow'

'Nope. No way'

'Way'

'I don’t have to listen to you..'

'You don’t have to', I tell her. She sighs.

'Arrrrgh. Fine. I will'

'Great, see you tomorrow then?'

'See you.'

Did I just advise someone on relationship? I rock! 

Link to previous episodes : Episode 1  Episode 2  Episode 3  Episode 4  Episode 5  Episode 6  Episode 7  Episode 8 Episode 9 Episode 10 Episode 11 Episode 12 Episode 13 Episode 14 Episode 15 Episode 16 Episode 17

Episode 17

I am totally enthusiastic today. My life is going well. I feel so great about moving out of my parents' place now. I am at work and nothing can stop me. I am going to hatch it. I am going to achieve it. I am going to make it big. I am high or something. But, I feel so positive.

The day could not have started better. Karthik had called me, rather woken me up and we had a nice chat. He asked me to have a nice day. I came to office and Sukanya had lot of good words to say. I am about to go for a meeting for discussing the system architecture with Sukanya.

'Hey Priya. Let's get to a meeting room', Sukanya arrives near my cubicle. I carry my laptop and follow her.

I enter the room, and she hooks her laptop with the projector and is browsing for some files, making small talk meanwhile.

'So, how are you finding this kind of work?'

'It is interesting. A change from normal development and release cycles.'

'Ya definitely! You seem to have some potential here. I am recommending you for a training and conference on designing, provided you are interested?'

'Ya sure.', maybe this is my calling. She has found the file she was searching for.

'Okay Priya. This is the system architecture I have come up with..'

What? Wasn’t I supposed to do that?

'Sukanya.. I have been working on that too..',  I remind her.

She looks taken aback.

'I don’t think so Priya.', she says.

'But..', I pull up the plan for me and show her the same.

'I think there has been a mistake. What that actually means is to prepare a presentation using what I design and probably do a feasibility check. Normally I do all that, but because of the time constraint…'

'I really thought I was going to work on the whole thing', I say.

Sukanya sits back on her chair and turns towards me.

'How many years' experience do you have? Four? I don’t think anyone would ask a four year experienced person to do full system architecture. You won't have the knowledge not experience to do this. This is not like domain modeling', she says.

Hmph. That may be so. But I am terribly disappointed. I am unable to not show it on my face. All my positive energy is being driven to my disappointment.

'Priya. As I said, I am recommending you for trainings and sessions. You can learn and start working on this…'

I nod my head. I had been looking forward to this. What she says probably makes sense. But I just cannot see beyond my disappointment and a terrible feeling of being let down.

'Shall I go ahead?', she asks. I nod again.

'So we are going for a web service based solution..', she starts and explains the whole thing. I have a lot of questions. We discuss a lot. The meeting goes on for a long time.

'Normally I do my own feasibility or comparative study. This time, I do not have enough time to do it. I have to start on physical architecture, these guys have even asked for a capacity planning, which no one does.'

I note down all the words she mentioned so that I can go and google it. I have no idea what she is talking about. Okay, I get what she means about experience. I wish I knew before and did not make a fool out of myself. Also, tamped down on my excitement.

'Feel free to ask me anything at any time Priya. We have to do this as soon as possible.'

'Sure Sukanya.', I say. I will do it. But, I am still disappointed. What do I know? Of course I can't design an entire system. But still… I could have tried. Well.. No one gives you a project for having tried.

Doing something on my own is much more engaging and interesting. Anyways, I start reading up on the huge load of things Sukanya spoke about in the meeting. Lots, I mean lots of strain on my mad googling skills.

Most of my day goes in all this and I have multiple rounds of discussions with Sukanya. She is a complete workaholic, she doesn’t go to the pantry or the cafeteria for lunch, no tea/coffee breaks either. To add to her work, there were a lot of people coming to her with doubts or questions or requests for help. Phew! No idea how she manages it all. She keeps asking me for status and updates. That is a bit tiring too. I end up slogging with her for a much more time than necessary. I do learn a lot of things from her though. But, did I want to learn all those? May be.

I start from work with Sukanya. She drives a bright red sedan. Sweet.  She doesn’t talk much as she did not know the area I am in and she spends all her time finding a route on the map. We do some small talk and we are really getting into it when my phone rudely starts ringing. I look at her apologetically and answer it, it is from Karthik.

'Hi Pri. Where are you?'

'On the way home'

'Ohh.. So late? Do you still want to go out?', he asks. His voice sounds really tired. Poor fellow.

'Of course not'

'Should I pick up something on the way?'

'You are coming?', I ask, quite stupidly I realize a second later.

'Yup. What do you want?'

'I don’t know. Your choice? Something light though..'

'Sure. You sound tired Priya.'

'I am tired Karthik. But you sound beat'

'See you soon?', he says following a chuckle, which sounds strained too.

'Sure. Bye', he hangs up, quite abruptly, even before I finish the single syllable that makes the word bye.

'I didn’t realize you were married', says Sukanya.

'I am not married', did we sound like a married couple?

'Boyfriend then?'

Hmph. Why does everyone assume he is my boyfriend? It just isn’t fair. I don’t think of him as my boyfriend.

'Yep. Sort of'

'Sort of?', she asks and laughs.

'You live alone?', she asks again.

Do I? Anitha isn’t a permanent roommate. 'Yep. Mostly'. She laughs again.

I hear my own responses filled with indefinites. Yep, I would laugh too.

Out of nowhere, she asks the next question . 'What is the deal with Shan and you? I sense some tension there?'

Uh oh. Do I tell her to mind her own business? How do you say that politely? Especially when the person is dropping you home thereby doing a favor?

'That’s a long story', I tell her hoping she gets the clue. Luckily, she does because she only nods. I have no idea why she asks though. So I ask.

'Why do you ask?'

'Nothing, just seemed like it. Since we are all working together, I asked'.

Hmmm. Okay.

'We are planning on including both of you in a couple of upcoming projects as well..'

'Oh. That’s.. interesting', I say. She smiles.

'So was wondering if the tension is something of a concern', she adds.

Personally? Yes. I am not sure. I mean, he is Karthik's friend. Should I be worried that he probably doesn’t like me?

Professionally? We were fine.

'I don’t think you should worry about us. Work-wise', I inform her.

'Yeah. That is what I am interested in anyways.'

I really hope Shan doesn’t let this become a thing.

We reach my place in sometime. I thank her, wish a good night and get down. She drops me at the gate so I have some distance to walk.

I reach home and I am just refreshed when my door bell rings. Wow, Karthik is quite fast. I go to open the door, I find Karthik, looking as tired as he sounded. He has his laptop and a bag which is probably food. I extend my hand for the food bag and he pops in, smiling, but wordless.

'Karthik, you look tired. You want to freshen up?'

He flops on to the couch and nods. 'Just give me five minutes, I am sure I have to at least wash my face.'

I get a chilled bottle of water from my fridge and give it to him and he gulps water down like I found him in the middle of a desert stranded without water.

'Lots of work?'

He nods. 'Loads. I am to finish something I was working on. '

I suddenly realize we never ever discuss about our work.

'Ohh.. What is it that you are working on?'

Karthik sits up. 'Well.. You know I work for a mobile manufacturer right?'

Ohhh.. I thought he was into robotics or something. No? If indeed he is a boyfriend, I suck as a girlfriend. Since I do not want to advertise the fact, I nod.

'We were working on a new technology. Have you heard of IoT? Internet of Things?'

'Umm.. no.'

'That has to do with introducing intelligent gadgets that automatically connect to internet for doing various things. Something like an air conditioner, which will automatically self-tune based on temperature outside, temperature patterns in your home, whether it is windy, rainy etc and adjust itself without any intervention. Most of the time it connects to the web for its functioning', he pauses, I nod for him to continue, indicating I am getting what he is talking about.

'We are in the process of making a smart phone which will be a central hub to do lot of things like unlock your security system, set the timer on your oven or even unlock you car and it will be IoT based. We have been working on it for more than a year now. This feature was about to be rolled out for manufacturing. In the last round of testing, we found a security issue which we have to address.'

'I thought you were into research.'

'I am into research and development. Anyways, normally, we would take this issue as a new research entity and start working on it. But this time, we want to be ahead of other smartphones and so we are being pushed to address this as part of the same one'.

'Isn't this risky? I mean..', he nods.

'As it stands, we have not found a solution, so we are going to be overworked until we find one at least, then we have to develop it, run it and the cycle would continue', as he spoke, his voice kept dropping, now he speaks almost above a whisper. Poor guy. I reach instinctively and pull my fingers through his hair.

He sighs and relaxes back.

Okay, what should I do now? I continue to sort of stroke his hair. He lets me do it for few more minutes, but then my stomach groans. He snaps out of his relaxed pose, drops my hand gently, stands up and stretches his arms and does a bend forward and backward thing. All this draws my attention to his super broad shoulders and I actually notice how muscular his arms are. I stare at his bunching and stretching muscles in fascination.

I clear my throat to prevent myself from drooling and ask him, 'Do you want to freshen up now?'

'Yes.'

'Okay'. I get up and go into my room, find a fresh hand towel, and beckon him inside. I show him the bathroom and leave him to it.

I go to the kitchen to see what he has brought for dinner. There is veg chow mein and what looks like stir-fried vegetables in Chinese style sauce. Looks like Chinese is his favorite type of food. I clear them from the packaging onto some bowls and carry them out to the coffee table.

I fetch plates, spoons and forks and that is when he comes back. He has folded the sleeves of his shirt till his elbows and unbuttoned the top two buttons on his shirt. I try not to start drooling again. He looks positively yum, tired, but yum.

'Ahhh… the food smells nice', he explains. Yep, definitely a Chinese fan.

He walks quickly to the couch, picks up a plate, fills it and hands it to me. So sweet.

'Thanks', I say, taking the plate from him while he fills his plate. We both sit down together.  I can smell my face wash on him. I find this a very interesting point.

'How did you come back to office today?'

'Sukanya, one of the architects in my team, dropped me'

'You could have called me you know I would have come picked you up. Your office is almost on the way for me'.

'Ohhh.. Did not strike me Karthik.', I say.

He looks at me for a few seconds, shakes his head and continues with twirling noodles onto his fork.

'What?', I ask him. He shakes his head. I continue to look at him until he relents.

'I think I have made progress with you. Then you do something that makes me realize that it isn’t much of a progress'.

'Huh. What did I do now?'

'If you don’t know what it is, there is no point don’t you think?'

Hmmm. I try to play back our talk. Ohhh.. Okay, maybe I got it.

'You mean, I didn’t call you for picking me up?'

He doesn’t say anything.

'I was really very preoccupied Karthik. Would have called else'. I probably would not have, it honestly didn’t occur to me.

Karthik doesn’t say anything again. I wait for a few seconds.

'Eat Priya', he says. Is he angry? I am not sure what his mood is. Since I don’t resume with my eating, he sighs.

'I had a girlfriend you know. Right from my undergrad years until I started working, for a solid six years'.

I had started chewing the moment he started moving his lips. On hearing what he just said, I start choking, a portion of the food having moved down the wrong pipe. I place the plate on the table and start hitting on my head with my hand. Karthik looks at me with a slight amused curve on his arrogant lips.

He offers me water after I all but bang on my head to get the food down the right pipe. I take a sip, 'You had a girlfriend?', I ask, immediately, starting a fresh batch of coughs.

'Yes. She was on the needy side'

'Okay?', I am not sure why he is telling me this.

'You, you don’t even call me when I can do something as easy as picking you up on my way'.

'Okay?', still not sure what his point is.

'I am used to doing things for my girlfriend. I liked doing it. I liked spoiling her'.

I am not irritated. I am not shocked. I am not angry or disappointed. I am feeling something; I am not sure what it is exactly, maybe a combination of all? Maybe something else?

I start eating with earnest, unsure how to respond.

'Priya?'

I do not hear him.

'Are you, jealous?', he asks.

Ohhh… Am I jealous? Girlfriend of six years who knew him in his college days? Probably I am jealous.

'Jealous? Me? No way', I snort for good measure.

A knowing look appears on his face. 'You are jealous', he proclaims.

'Right. I don’t even know who she is, why would I be?', I say, but he continues as if I haven’t said a thing.

'Anyways, what I am trying to say is. I expect you to ask me to do things for you.'

I am not touching that with even a ten foot long pole. I would ask him if I want to or need to.

'What happened? I mean with your girlfriend?'

'I got this job after my post-graduation, but she moved on to go into PhD and she ended up moving to France and long distance never works, something everyone told me, but I refused to believe it until it stopped working', he explains.

Damn. They did not fight and have a huge falling apart? He doesn’t hate her now? I don’t like this anymore and don’t want to know.

'Okay', is my only acknowledgement.

Karthik laughs sounding happy. 'Maybe I have gotten through to you.'

'Let me eat Karthik. I am hungry'

He throws his head back and laughs a lot more. Right.

His phone rings. He checks his display, sighs and picks it up.

'Yes Raghav', I hear him say. 'Oh.. Okay. Give me five minutes man', he says.

What?                                 

'You are leaving?'

'No Priya, I just need to connect from here. Is the wi-fi on?'

'Yes. But you better finish eating.'

'Nope I have to'

' I am not telling you the password until you eat.'

'Okay Ma'am', he says with a smile in his tone and makes a production of eating with humility and exaggerated dutifulness having listened to my direct irrefutable order.

I throw him a dirty look. He eats super-fast. I give him the password. He picks up his lap top, powers it on. After a couple of minutes, he looks up and says, 'Pri. You should go to bed. I think I am going to take a long time with this', doesn’t even listen for my response.

 I clean up the bowls, plates and everything. I spend time facebooking. I try to stay awake as he is still awake, I even doze of on the couch. 

Karthik wakes me up. 'Priya. Go on. Go and sleep. I am going to be here, I can't leave now', he says. I only hear go and sleep which is what my sleep-fogged mind wanted to hear. I nod. I think he kisses me on my right cheek before I get up and go to my room with its single bed and fall on it.

So that is how Karthik ends up staying the night at my place. 

Link to previous episodes : Episode 1  Episode 2  Episode 3  Episode 4  Episode 5  Episode 6  Episode 7  Episode 8 Episode 9 Episode 10 Episode 11 Episode 12 Episode 13 Episode 14 Episode 15 Episode 16

Episode 16

'The thing I remember about you is you sneaking out for some sort of party before your 9^th standard maths exams and getting caught when I was there at your place and your parents going gonzo.', Sravan says. I vaguely remember trying to go for a friend's birthday party, a friend who had for the first time invited boys over. It was so novel at a Chennai suburban home.

I nod. His memory could have picked out some other moment. My mom and dad gave unforgettable punishments. I think I was not allowed access to T.V, books or phone or meeting friends or anything after this incident for almost a month. The party might have been worth it, I don’t remember regretting it.

'All I remember about you is what an inspirational person you were.. probably still are. I was always asked to aspire to your marks, scores and grades. You did not do me any favors growing up', I say, trying to infuse acid in my tone. 'Wow, I can't believe that I almost didn’t recognize you for a second.', I say. We were walking around my apartment complex, essentially revisiting my earlier route.

'Sorry about that', he says and smiles. Right. As if. But he had cute dimples popping out when he smiled. He is not too tall, only slightly more than average. He is really well built though. I could make out muscles. He has his shirt sleeves rolled up and I am trying not to look at his forearms. Yep, he has attractive forearms. Overall, he is attractive, if you liked the well-built, crisp and intelligent looking sort. I don’t remember thinking that of him growing up. He was always this annoying over achiever who made life difficult for me. He catches me checking him out and gives me a smile that is much more than cute. Wow! He is damn cute.  This can't be happening. I like Karthik. I like Karthik. I like Karthik. I chant this a few more times. Does he look less cute? Nope.

'So here we are. I had to come.. My father…', he says shaking his head.

'No explanation necessary. My father's enthusiasm explains it all', I say and smile.

'Sorry to barge in like this, late at night, it is almost nine now. I am traveling to our native place tomorrow. My dad had this sudden bright idea and you know how he is..'. His dad is like my dad. So I know.

'Never mind. I wish we could have met in better circumstances', I tell him. I have a vision of me sweaty, trying to tie my hair and opening my mouth with my hair band still held between my lips. Things cannot have gone more embarrassing.

He laughs. 'No honestly. That was a much more interesting look on you..'. I glare at him. He laughs more. I roll my eyes.

He holds out his hand, palm up. 'Okay. Okay. Sorry about that. Let me be frank. I was intrigued by the idea that my dad had. All these years in the U.S, I have dated a few, but did not feel like marrying anyone. Then my dad talks about you. Your dad says it is perfect. He feels that is why your previous engagement must have broken. I remember a girl who was open and happy and getting caught doing things I never even thought of doing. I think why not. So here we are. I don’t expect to start liking you immediately, as in liking. I don’t expect you to either. Let us meet, talk and get to know each other. Let us decide after that. I am here for another month. That works for you?'

Wow. Where was this guy few months ago? What do I tell him? I know I like Karthik. But is it set it stone? Is Karthik the one? Sravan isn’t asking me to marry him right? I am just talking to him. If that’s what it is, why am I feeling guilty? I look at Sravan. He really isn’t bad looking. He is very successful, I don’t know what he does, but I have been reminded how very successful he is. I like Karthik. I like Karthik. Truth is, I really do like Karthik. Karthik's sharp brown eyes look at me and I try to conjure up his smile. Sure, he does not have dimples. But especially the Smile, the smile that confused me and made my mind foggy. Then there was his satisfied smile, the smile he gave me when he is satisfied with what I do or how I do it, full of some male thing going on. Yep, I like Karthik.

I take a deep breath. 'Sorry Sravan. I am seeing someone now. I really like him. I don’t think we should meet or explore or decide'.

'Oh', Sravan looks unsure for a moment or two.

'Wow. That was a surprise. Oh boy!', he says. I am not sure what he came prepared for. Isn't it always a fifty-fifty that someone says yes?

'I started seeing him very recently. Sorry about this confusion. My parents do not know, of course.'

'I get it Priya. No problem. Sorry for assuming things.', he seems cool enough. He nods his head. 'Shall we go back then?', he asks pointing at the direction of my apartment.

'Sure. I wouldn’t mind catching up with you though.. You know.. For old times' sake.', I offer. I can't help it. I have been brought up to have a desire to never let anyone down.

Sravan puts out his hand, for me to shake it, which I do. 'I wouldn’t mind that either. I will tell my dad something. Don’t worry about it.'

We walk back. I ask him about his experiences in a foreign country. He asks me about my job and about Karthik. We come back home.

My dad has to drop Sravan at his place as Sravan hasn't ever driven a vehicle in India. So they leave immediately. I know I am going to be drilled tomorrow.

I change to night clothes. I am just wearing a long night shirt almost like a dress, but cotton and extremely comfortable and very old. I can see that my dad had helped himself to some coffee and looked like he set the pipe in my kitchen right. It used to drip a little bit if not closed in the correct angle. I smile to myself. My dad is sweet. I start cleaning up when the doorbell buzzes. I hope it's not him again. I go and open the door. I see Karthik instead. Karthik looks very tired his hair a mess. He looks at me and does a sweep with his eyes, from my head to toe. I suddenly get aware of my night shirt and squirm a little bit. He smiles, walking in.

'Hi Priya', he says. He inexplicably gives me a hug as if I am seeing him after several days and if I am not wrong, he is sniffing my hair. He lets me go, drops his bag by the couch and falls down on it.

'Please tell me you have food. I am starving.', he says as I had not moved. I am glad to see him. But the way he walked in, hugged me and all that seemed like we had been doing this for many days, months, years. I shake myself. Feed the hungry man first, I tell myself.

'Lucky for you, I did make dinner today, give me five minutes'.

I start with the rotis, start rolling the dough. I remember he is starving and go through my fridge and pick up an apple and give it to him. I rush back. I am nervous. He is going to eat my food. Shit.

I make a few rotis, hope it is enough for him. I take the rotis in a plate and the sabzi in a small bowl and take it to him. He had finished the apple. He is sitting down completely leaned back and his head resting on the couch. He looks so tired.

I grab a bottle of water and give him the plate. He starts eating silently; I observe. He is eating my food. I like watching him eat. After about a roti is done he looks at me.

'I was prepared for the worst Priya. But this isn’t bad at all. I mean it is pretty good'.

My mind – Yayyyyy! I did it! Yessss.

My mouth - 'Thanks for sounding so surprised Karthik', in a very dry sarcastic tone.

He smiles.

'So how was your day Pri?'

Did he just call me Pri? Had he called me Pri before?

'Oh ya it went fine. I got my job done on time. I rocked at the review. Then came home and cooked, took a walk. By the way, I had cooked extra considering tomorrow as well', it is a lie, but I tell that to him anyway.

'No problem. I will take you out tomorrow for dinner', he says.

I did not expect that, but yippee.

'You better. Oh and dad was here today …', I start and stop myself. Do I tell about Sravan? I don’t know. Is that incident worth sharing with Karthik? I don’t know.

'Ohhh.. Is it? When did he leave?'

'Maybe twenty minutes back?'

'Thank God I missed him', Karthik has his own worries of course. Do I tell him or not?

'Yeah. I did not expect you today Karthik. If you had come a bit earlier..', I shudder. I have no clue what my dad's reaction would be if it was just him here. But with Sravan? I shudder again.

'I tried calling you. Your phone is off'. I have not charged it yet? How stupid of me? I get up to put my phone to charge.

'Do you want more rotis?'

'I think I am good', he says, still eating. I nod.

'Shan called me today', he starts. 'He means well. It is just that…'

'I know Karthik. I don’t blame him. But, I don’t know why he is asking me stuff he should be asking you..'

'Probably because he has not been able to ask me…', he looks sheepish. Has he been avoiding Shan? I smile. Okay.. so do I tell him about Sravan?

I sit by him, pick up the bottle and drink some water. He is almost done eating.

'Thanks Priya. I was really hungry.', he says and gets up. He goes to the kitchen to drop the plates and wash up. He comes back and drinks some water too.

'You want to say something to me Priya?', he asks. What? Am I that easy to read? I think I should train myself on poker face.

'Dad had not come alone. He had Sravan with him…'

'Sravan?', Karthik's eyebrows knit together in a classic I-don’t-like-the-Sravans-of-the-world look.

'Yup. Sravan is someone I almost grew up with. He went to the U.S immediately after schooling. He is my dad's best friend's son.'

'Okay?'

'So, Sravan was here. I took a walk with him..', I could have said that better. Right?

Karthik turns to me, his arms crossed on his chest, his face blank.

'Why did you take a walk with Sravan the someone you almost grew up with?', his voice is blank too.

'My dad thought and his dad too, that if we got married…', I don’t need to finish that sentence right? I duck my head.

'Priya?', he calls me. 'Ya?', I say without looking up.

'Priya?', he calls my name again. I nod my head, yes, I hear him.

I hear a sigh and he kneels before me. He hooks a finger under my chin and now I can't not look at him, can I?

'He wanted to just meet, talk and all that, so that we can decide'.

'Hmmm..', he drops his hand but keeps kneeling and keeps looking at me.

'I told him no'. His hands move around me, he gets closer and before I realize, his lips brush mine, a quick tentative brush. He moves back.

Oh! My! God! I go blank. 'Priya?', I hear him calling me. Not sure how many times he has called. I hope just once. He wasn’t going to get all overgrown ape-y on me? I was going to get a kiss? This is a peck, not exactly a kiss. But still.

Damn. This guy is so inconsistent.

'Karthik, tell me why you like me?'. I am not sure why.

'What?'

'Tell me why you like me', I sound confused.

'You are seriously asking me aren’t you?', well, duh. I nod. I have to know.  The Sravans of the world don’t get often turned down by the Priyas. I know I like Karthik. I know why.

He doesn’t answer for a lot of seconds, maybe minutes. I look at him. He clears his throat.

'You are true to yourself Priya.'

Huh?

'You could have married me, I am not saying I am irresistible, but I know I am a catch, no one could have faulted you, not even me. But, you were not sure, you did not want to do it for the wrong reasons. So you didn’t. Most people would have gone ahead just because they couldn’t find a reason to not marry a well settled, not bad looking young guy… Like you did in the beginning.', he pauses, looking at me, a small smile, probably because he called himself not bad looking. I nod at him. I did not think of it that way.

'You let someone you met just now, live with you, because they asked. You did not ask any questions. You don’t know how long. You see Anitha as a friend, even though you don’t know much about her and you help her. Having a proper roommate is different, helping out someone you barely know is different.. But you do it…'

Anitha is very sweet, why would I not help her? I don’t know her well, but…  Again, I did not know he saw it this way.

'You are in search for satisfaction with your work. You are in search for a purpose. You are open to explore.', he stops.  'It is not easy to explain something that is truly abstract Pri. I know I like you. I know why'. Wow, we think along similar lines. I do hope he doesn’t ask me to list down why I like him.

Ok. When put like that, I do sound interesting. Sort of. He looks at me.

'Okay.', I say. What else do you say? You don ’t say, naaa. What he says seems fair. I am not sure I consider those things as good or right. But if it works for him, fine.

He shakes his head. 'You are clueless. You don’t know yourself at all.'. Okay, maybe he should stop before things take a turn towards the embarrassing side of things. So I shoot him a warning look.

He laughs. 'You are cute.'

'I am not cute'

He smiles then. This smile is his you-are-so-cute smile. Hmph.

'So are you leaving then? It is late', I fake-stifle a fake-yawn. His your-are-so-cute smile widens. I glare. He laughs. He gets up from the couch, picks up his bag.

'I was just kidding', I tell him. He is leaving so soon?

'I know. I have to go though. I have loads to do'

'Work?'

He nods. 'Lots of work'. He walks to the door, stops, turns back. Oh my! Is he going to…

But all he does is tuck a lock of my hair behind my ear, wave and leave.

I close the door and lock, lean on it. I yawn for real. I might not sleep though. I have a certain set of lips to obsess about.

Link to previous episodes : Episode 1  Episode 2  Episode 3  Episode 4  Episode 5  Episode 6  Episode 7  Episode 8 Episode 9 Episode 10 Episode 11 Episode 12 Episode 13 Episode 14 Episode 15

Episode 15

I am at work and trying to concentrate. I am someone that gets diverted easily, to the point that a slightly more acute manifestation of this problem might have been called attention deficiency disorder. I am trying to concentrate because Venkat, Shan’s friend, had responded with his feedback. He had suggested a few changes and also an alternate approach and asked me to consider it. I am supposed to be noting down pros and cons so that I can decide on the alternate approach and I have to get it done today. Instead all I am doing is thinking about Karthik. If I was doing the noting down on paper, I might have drawn little hearts and written down his name in them. Thankfully, am using a spreadsheet making the hearts-drawing too difficult to do unconsciously. Ya, this is how I drift off from software modeling to Karthik, it almost sounds like the logical thing to do.

I attempt once again, mentally erasing the little hearts with Karthik, since it is in my mind, instead of his name, I have an image in the heart, where he gives me the Smile. Yes, I have classified his smiles based on experience. I will introduce you guys to it one by one. First on the list is the Smile. This is the smile he gives me, an almost grin, eyes gone all melty, which makes me feel like I am the only other person in the world right now. I saw it first time yesterday, and the Smile has had a long effect. Right, drifted off again!

I start typing something into the pros column so that I get into it one way or the other.

Finally it works. I start noting things down. As I fill it, I realize why the alternate approach cannot work here and the cons column keeps growing. This is a relief as I could not have re-modeled the solution. I incorporate the suggestions for the same model and start verifying it. I am so glad that I got to do it by afternoon. I can take it to the review team and get round one done before we meet tomorrow. This way I can be prepared.

I schedule a meeting right away including Sukanya, Shan and the review team, so that everyone knows the status. Most people were not free until the late afternoon, so I reschedule. Shan drops by to my place.

'Hey Priya. Looks like you have made good progress.', he smiles, while I keep wondering at the smile, it changes to a smirk-smile. Thank God, I don’t know how to process Shan without a smirk-smile.

I nod. 'Yup. Hopefully, this goes through the review.'

'Ya, I hope so too. So what's the plan now?'

'I am going to look at system architecture of a similar system. I have been advised I might be able to use the same with minor changes', I say, air quoting "advised".

Shan smirk-smiles.

'Won't that be easy', he points out.

'Yes, it is better that we don’t spend too much time reinventing the wheel', I give back.

I don’t know how I could differentiate it, but I know that the smirk-smile he gives me now has a tinge of appreciation in it. I'll take it.

'I am going to get a cup of coffee at the cafeteria, do you want to join?', Shan asks.

I am in shock. Shan wants to have coffee with me? Whoa.

'Sure Shan. Let's go'. One doesn’t say no to one's manager, when one is invited for a coffee. This is a commandment, so I go with him.

He orders coffee for both of us, we wait in silence and once it is done, we pick them up and look for a table and get seated.

Shan was one of those few managers who do not beat around the bush.

'So what is this with Karthik?'

'Umm… what?'

'I ask as Karthik's friend. He isn’t telling me anything. Every time I called him in the past week, he has been at your place or your friends' place.'

'Yeah.. he…'

'Really, what is happening?'

'We are.. I don’t know how to say. We…'

'What is he doing at your friends' place?'

I take a deep breath. I am not known for patience, although these days my patience is being tested.

'I introduced Karthik to my friends. One of my friends, Aditya, has been promoted to an important position, so he invited all of us to announce and for us to get together..'

'Why is Karthik hanging out with you and your friends?'. Shan has decided not to let me finish any of my sentences.

'I don’t see why I should answer you Shan. I don’t see why this is any of your business..', I say this without raising my voice, calmly. I am proud of myself.

Shan looks at me and smirk-smiles. This time, the smirk-smile is tinged with, no, dripping  with sarcasm.

'It is my business alright. When you insulted him by dumping him, he came to me. I helped him out. I helped sort out the mess. I spoke to his parents and helped them get over it. Now, you are making more of a mess and I want to know why. When I asked him to come help you the other night, I expected you guys will be at each other fighting and all that', he shakes his head, like he just cannot comprehend what is happening.

How do you explain to your manager that things changed? That instead of fighting and ripping at each other, Karthik and I bonded? That we somehow liked each other once we stopped seeing the other as the forced better half? How do you explain to the groom's friend who helped the groom through the jilting that you are seeing the said groom now, but you are not sure where this is going this time around either?

Since you can't articulate it in an acceptable manner for the manager, you keep quiet.

'Are you guys together now? I hear he is even moving back here'

'I think you should talk to Karthik.'

He shakes his head.

'I cannot understand this. Karthik is the most grounded, sensible person I know. I just don’t get this.'

Yep, I have already been told talking to me is senseless. Not so surprisingly, so is seeing me or meeting my friends.

'Lucky for us, what you think doesn’t matter really, does it?', which is the god's honest truth and a universally accepted fact.

Shan smirk-smiles now with a hint of menace.

'Tread carefully Priya. Anything happens this time….', he doesn’t finish his threat, probably because he is not creative enough to come up with a good or-else.

I shrug at him. I muster up all the attitude in me and give him a cool look. If he is normal or human he would have frozen on the spot. Of course he doesn’t.

'Again Shan. This is between me and Karthik. None of your business. If you are concerned as a friend, you should talk to your friend', I say pointing at him.

He gulps his coffee down like its water and gets up and walks off. I slowly sip on mine, relishing the taste of fresh ground coffee. Ours is a roof top cafeteria, it is nice at times like this when the weather is breezy. I should have realized Shan was up to no good.

I call Karthik. He wasn’t taking my call. So I text him.

You have very loyal friends.

I wait for some time hoping he would reply. He doesn’t. I go back and start preparing for my review. Once am done with the changes I send it to Venki again.

The review goes well. The architect experts only had a few minor corrections and were fine with the model. Shan does not join the meeting, but Sukanya does. Since the review went smooth and ahead of schedule she calls other interested parties to discuss on other things. I take my leave at that point.

'Good job Priya', Sukanya says, giving me an approving nod. Niiiice, I think. Very niiiice. I can't stop the light skip in my step, I am feeling pretty accomplished.

I have loads of work to do still. Damn.

I get started on the system architecture now. I have three days to do this. I have loads of reading to do, so I start printing things up to read during my travel and at home. I can't always study or learn from a screen, I prefer a book. So don’t judge me on wasting paper, I do try to avoid printing as much as possible. I leave from work with a stack of printouts and get into my shuttle.

I see Anand. He waves at me. 'Ahhh.. Not today too?', he asks, pointing at the papers in my hand.

'Yes, today as well', I smile. He dramatically hangs his head down and huffs in terrible, unbearable disappointment. I can’t help it. I laugh.

'You have a good laugh', he says, after dramatically pretending to be lost in my very mesmerizing laugh. Of course, since I am a female susceptible to being complimented, I laugh some more to prove how good a laugher I am.

When I still start with my precious printouts, he sighs and makes a production of leaving me to it. My phone buzzes. It is a text from Karthik.

Please don’t tell me. Shan was trying to protect me from you? :-D

Karthik is of the quick minded variety. I smile to myself. I don’t realize Anand is still in the vicinity until he says, 'Ahh.. the boyfriend? The guy who wanted to incinerate me with his eyes?'

'Ummm what?', I ask, a little stupidly.

Anand points at my phone for emphasis, 'Is that from the boyfriend? And is the boyfriend the guy we saw yesterday?'.

'Oh yeah. It is'. Of course, I don’t consider Karthik as my boyfriend, but what else am I going to say? Explain the entire history?

'He seems too bossy. Once you decide he is more work than you can handle, give me a ring', Anand says, with a wink and walks away. I know he doesn’t mean a thing. Anand, the shameless flirt.

Karthik is more work than I can handle. I am all about pushing my boundaries these days.

I reply to Karthik.

           

Oh ya. Apparently I am going to eat you for breakfast and spit your bones. You should be careful.

I start reading. I don’t check my messages until I finish a couple of pages.

I am always careful with you. :-D

You better be. Btw, I won't mind taking you up on the offer of making dinner for me. Like, today?

Anitha had left for her parents' house and is off for a couple of days. She has some family function to attend to.

Sorry babe. I am swamped today. Tomorrow maybe?

I read this latest message at least four times. I am babe? I blush.

           

Okay. No problem. See you soon?

After a few minutes, he still doesn’t reply. Must be busy. I get on with my reading.

I go home, call and speak to my parents. I decide to cook something. I search recipes for making something simple, easy and quick. Anitha had left some dough for rotis. So I decide to make rotis and tawa paneer, which is supposed to be a quick recipe. I make more than necessary because a corner of me hopes Karthik will drop by. I tell myself that, I am lazy, so I am making it for two days' worth dinner. Aditya did invite me. But, I decided to work if Karthik doesn’t drop by.

I finish with the cooking. I sit down with my laptop and my reading material and start making notes. I check my phone every few minutes. No messages. Okay, I tell myself. We are anyways taking it slow. Right.

I eat dinner and am pretty bored so I decide to take a walk. I take my Ipod  and my phone, close the house and leave. There is a huge walk path running around our apartment complex. Lots of uncles and aunties are always found walking or sitting here and there and just talking. On rare occasions, when it is quite dark, you can even see young couples holding hands and on extremely rare occasions, you can catch people smooching (I haven’t seen this, though Anitha swears she has).

I walk for more than half an hour. I start to come back home. Karthik hadn't called, texted or dropped by. I realize that I want him to. I realize that I miss him. Damn. I pick up my phone to call Anitha. My phone has gotten off. I try to start it, low battery. I hop up the stairs instead of taking the elevator; I have worked up quite a sweat. I free my hair from the tight pony tail I had put it up in when I reach my floor. I raise my hands trying to adjust my hair, holding the elastic band around my wrist while holding my hair too, trying to create a bun. I have the bun twisted and I transfer the band to my mouth to get a better grip of my hair.

I look up with the band in my mouth and that is how I see my dad standing outside my door, I try to smile and end up dropping the band down and that is when I notice the other person standing with my dad. He looks around our age and is dressed in formal trousers and a crisp shirt and I don’t have a good feeling about this.

'Pri ma. Where were you? I tried calling you.'

'Hi Dad. Phone got off.', I say, dig for keys from my track pant pockets and open the door.

'Come in Dad.', I say and smile at the stranger. He looks familiar, but I can't remmeber from where.

'Come in Sravan. You know Pri anyway', my dad invites him in on my behalf. Sravan… Yes, Sravan is my dad's best friend's son. I have met him a lot of times until my schooling. He was a bit older than me and moved to the United States to pursue his education. I am seeing him after maybe ten years now? I hope my living room is in a presentable condition.

'Ohhh.. Sravan? As in Sarathy uncle and Sravan? Oh my god. How are you?', I offer my hand to him. He shakes it. Firm and solid hand shake.

'Am good Priya. How are you?'

'Am doing great. So when did you come back?', I ask, but I see my dad trying to communicate something to me through his eyes and indecipherable sign language.

'Okay, do you want water or coffee or something? Dad, can you come help me?', I say, so that he can peacefully tell me what he wants to say. I start walking to the kitchen and my dad follows. Thank God.

'Priya, get changed. What are you doing? I did not know you went for a walk?'

'Umm dad relaxe. It is Sravan. I know it has been a long time, but he has definitely seen me in worse.'

'Priya, I brought him to meet you. Do you understand?'

'Naa.. I don’t. You could have told me, I would have come home and probably met Sarathy uncle too.'

'Pri no. He has come back to India for a few months. They want him married. He wants to meet you for…'

'Whoa whoa whoa. What?'

'Yes Pri. Please get changed. Just talk to him. Sarathy is really interested in this. I mean. It is Sarathy. I would be so happy.'

From the way my dad speaks, you would think I am supposed to be marrying Sarathy uncle.

'I am going to change dad, but because I have to.'

I ready the milk for boiling it and stomp to my room. What the hell. I quickly wash up and grab the first salwar from my wardrobe and pull it on. My hair is still sweaty. I just brush it up and leave the room. I hear my dad extolling my virtues to Sravan.

'This is interesting uncle, Priya living alone. I am impressed.' I hear Sravan say.

'Priya is very independent. She wanted to', my dad says and with a hint of pride in his voice. Right. I wonder who is the other person who asks me to move back home every single time I go visit him.

I can see that my dad has made coffee. I cannot go sit; I really need to buy chairs. I just go and stand in front of them.

'We were just talking about you Priya.', my dad says. Ya. I had no idea.

'Priya, let's take a walk?', Sravan asks. 'I believe uncle told you. I think we should talk?', he frames it as a question. Isn't it too late in the day for the girl-seeing business?

I don’t say anything, but look at my dad.

'Priya ma. You go take a walk. I will wait here.'

What do I say? Say no and insult my dad in front of his best friend's son?  I sigh. I nod.

I look at Sravan. He stands up.

Crap.

Link to previous episodes : Episode 1  Episode 2  Episode 3  Episode 4  Episode 5  Episode 6  Episode 7  Episode 8 Episode 9 Episode 10 Episode 11 Episode 12 Episode 13 Episode 14

Episode 14

I have been hearing a bell ringing for quite some time now. I wish it would just stop. I roll over, pick up a pillow and cover my head with it. But, I can still hear it. I get pissed. So, that is how I wake up. I go to the door and open it.

I stand rubbing my eyes and see Naren there. He looks at his watch.

‘You are going to be so late’, he says. What? No way, I had set my alarm for seven. I look at the clock in the living room, my eyes are not yet focusing as they should. I look at Naren, he already checked his watch and since he has a watch one can fairly assume that he can tell time. ‘It is way past 8.30. Can I come in?’, he asks. Oh ya, I opened the door and was just standing there.

‘Sorry sorry. Come in. Give me a minute.’, I run to my room , brush, wash my face and finger comb my hair in record three minutes.

I come out and find Naren in the kitchen, he has the milk boiling. Ohhhh.. That is sweet.

‘What’s up?’, I ask lamely.

‘Well, we haven’t spoken after that night at the disc.’

‘Isn’t it too early in the morning for bringing that up?’

He smiles. ‘It isn’t. You are too late.’

Right. I already missed my office shuttle.

‘You think you can drop me to office today?’

‘Sure. If you get ready as fast as you brush, sure.’

I nod. The milk having boiled, I move. ‘Coffee?’, I ask him.

He nods. So I make two cups of coffee. We go to the living room.

I sip my coffee. Ahh… good one.

‘That’s a good coffee Pri’, he says in a surprised tone. I glare at him.

He laughs. ‘What’s up?’, I ask him again. He takes a deep breath.

‘Anitha is living here? How is she?’

‘She is good. She has been here for almost a week.’ I hope he doesn’t ask me for anything that puts me in a spot between them.

‘You should come by the house.’, he says.

‘Yeah, I should. I have been so busy lately. It is not an excuse, I really have been busy.’, I stifle a yawn.

‘Naaa… Anitha cooks, so you don’t see the need…’, I don’t even let him finish the sentence. I grab one of the discarded pillows and throw it at him. He catches it effortlessly.

‘I came, remember. I don’t like being yelled at you know’. He had yelled. For leaving in the middle of the night by myself or without informing anyone. Okay, that was a mistake. But, did he have to yell? I try explaining, but nope. He wouldn’t listen. Hence, Aditya said he needs at least a week. Whaddya know, it is more than a week now.

‘Sorry Pri. What you did was wrong. No doubt. But, it was supposed to be your treat and I basically ruined that. Sorry for yelling though.’

‘Never mind Naren. How are you? You look like shit.’

‘So you know about the whole being in break thing?’

‘Yup I know’

‘I asked Anitha yesterday, for us to stop being on a break…’

Ohhh.. Was that the phone call?

‘She says she wants more time. I bungled this Pri. Big time.’

Ohhh.. ‘I am not sure what Naren, something you did has hurt her. You need to give her some time.’, I think back to her talking about making decisions.

He just nods. ‘I get it. I came here to ask you to come for dinner today. Aditya felt I needed to come and ask you.’

‘If you guys are okay for a late dinner, I will join.’. I tell him about the work.

He has a look of surprise, ‘You are finally doing some work to actually earn all these years of salary that you did not deserve’ . Ha ha. Funny. I give him my scary death stare. He doesn’t even flinch.

‘Okay, Pri. I am getting late. I haven’t had breakfast too. If you are going to be ready in twenty, I can drop you and we can even have breakfast on the way to work. What say?’

I get to not change three public transport buses and eat something other than corn flakes for breakfast. Brilliant.

‘Deal. See you in twenty. Close the door when you leave please.’. I rush to start my day.

I get ready and come out of my block. Naren is running a few minutes late. I pick my phone and see few text messages. Yesterday’s altercation with Karthik comes crashing to my mind. Oh my god, how could I forget. There are a couple of useless messages advertising some sale.

The last text is from him.

Ahh.. The confusing female populace. Instead of me trying to figure it out, tell me, rather, instruct.

It takes a minute for me to recollect our argument yesterday. Yeah, we were arguing about taking things slow. He had continued our conversation and he took time probably because he was driving. I laugh. I realize I am alone, so I laugh in my head, right, like he would listen. I text back.

So you say you are in research, I am yet to be convinced.

I don’t expect a reply back. But I get it almost immediately.

Unfortunately, not the kind of research I should have been doing.

I keep thinking of a witty come back. I keep thinking.

I guess he reached a threshold, he calls me. I answer.

‘Hey’, I say.

‘Hi, how are you today’, he asks.

‘Okay I guess.’, he holds a pause as if expecting me to add to it.

He laughs. ‘You are not easy are you? You are not going to tell me why only okay?’

‘If I answer this, I will be deemed easy. So I prefer to leave you wondering…’

‘So you are not easy…’

‘If I answer this, I will be deemed not easy. So I prefer to leave you wondering…’. Female populace eh?

He laughs, again. ‘So what’s up?’

‘I am on my way to work, just waiting for Naren. He is my dropper today. I woke up late so missed the bus’

‘Dropper?’, he asks, I can visualize him shaking his head. ‘You are abusing the English language’.

‘I prefer to think of it as enriching, enhancing, coining new words..’

‘So Naren drops you to work whenever you miss your bus?’

‘Not really. Naren turned up at my place way earlier than I was ready to wake up and woke me up and so I am making him drop me to work.’

‘Is this the same friend who helped you when you moved? Did you move there to that apartment because he lived in the same one?’

‘Naaa…After I decided I am moving, I got to know he lived there too. But it turned out good. He is just too sweet..The tall-trio are all sweet. They are the…’, I pause looking for a word to describe them. I think they are the shit but I say, ‘They are great’.

‘Sweet? Tall trio?’

‘Ya. Naren, Vivek, Aditya. All tall. All sweet.’

‘Hmmm’, he just makes a sound. But the sound has more depth than it should.

‘What happened?’, I ask this and Naren reaches. ‘Hi Naren.’, I wave at him. ‘Oh sorry’, I realize am on phone. ‘Hey Karthik. Got to go. Will call you?’. I hang up after he says good bye. I can’t stop smiling.

‘We are a bit late to beat the rush hour traffic’, Naren explains. We leave immediately.

********

I get busy at work. We are on a tight schedule and my entire day is planned out with no time to spare. I am to finish the domain model for today and tomorrow. So I take a print of my first attempt which was rejected by the client and take the client’s views on it as well. I also start collecting information on the library domain. The sessions and courses have helped. I am able to identify the problem in the original one. Now I have to just solve the problem.

I keep at it. I eat at my desk. I have coffee at my desk. I don’t even take breaks. The aim is to have a high level outline by today so I can refine it tomorrow. There will be a review day after, and I have time only until day after to rework on it. So I have to get it right the first time.

I decide to send the outline to Venkat, Shan’s guest lecturer, so that I am not way off track. I call him and ask and he says he will take a look. But he says, if I send it to him in the evening, he can respond only by tomorrow afternoon. I convince him to look it over earlier and I promise to send it to him by four in the evening. He agrees. But I have set for myself an even more difficult target.

I couldn’t do it by four. I send him my work around four thirty and he responds back not to worry, he will still respond by early tomorrow morning. I sigh in relief. I finally take a break.

As I pick my phone, I expect to see a text from Karthik. But none.

I go back to work trying very hard to not look at my phone obsessively. Life sucks. There is just no win-win.

I spend some more time on my work and having done all I can do, I decide to leave. I carry a couple of notes to go over on my way back home. God, I had not done so much studying since my 12^th standard board exams. I get into the office shuttle and hook my ear phones and play songs and start with my notes. I am reading up on principles of modeling and design, something which I should have done a long time ago.

I am so into the reading that another employee who gets down at the same stop as me has to come and revive me back. ‘Excuse me.. Are you going somewhere else today? I know you need to get down at the next stop’.

Huh? My mind just blanks for a second. Then I see his familiar face and smile.

‘Nope I am going home, just got lost in the reading. Thanks. Sorry.’ Thanks and Sorry? What the what? He smiles. He has a nice smile. We get down from the bus.

He is on the handsome side of the male species. I give him a smile back, the smile I reserve for good looking guys; tilt my head a little to my left and say, ‘I am Priya.’ Yep, he is handsome.

‘I am Anand.’, he says and offers his hand. ‘You were lost in there Priya. I even snapped my fingers in front of you’.

Nope, he didn’t . ‘Nope, you didn’t’.

‘I could have, you wouldn’t have known.’ I sigh. He might be right.

‘I have a lot of work. I am reading up on things to do it…’

‘Ahh.. pretty and interested in work. That is a refreshing combination..’, he says, his eyes smiling and something else in them. Whoa. He is flirting with me. My smile widens. We are inside the apartment complex’s premises; apparently he lives here as well. This is not a surprise, most of the apartments here are filled with people who work in our tech park.

‘That is such a sexist thing to say’, I tell him. Before he can respond, I see Anitha. I wave at her. I see Karthik coming behind her. I wave even more enthusiastically at him even though I wonder about his presence here. He doesn’t react, he even looks like he decided to keep his face tight and immobile. Okay.

I introduce them all. When I say Anand’s name, Karthik’s face tightens up even more. Anand leaves us after a bye for Karthik and Anitha and a wink for me. Ha ha, overkill.

‘Vivek asked me to be nice and come to their place for dinner. Apparently, Aditya has some news. Karthik has been asked to join too, after I told them he was your boyfriend’, Anitha says. He was my what? Boyfriend? Naaaa. I give Anitha an are-you-nuts look.

‘Karthik, doesn’t want to join right? He doesn’t know them right? Karthik?’, I say and look expectantly at him. I don’t see him agreeing.

‘I am joining. I decided I want to meet the tall trio.’, his voice still doesn’t sound normal.

‘Tall trio?’, Anitha laughs. ‘Ya, tall trio is right. Tall and good looking too..’, she says and winks. If it wasn’t for Karthik’s robotic immobile face, I would have winked back.

‘What are you doing here?’, I ask Karthik. He just shrugs. Anitha decides to intervene on his behalf.

‘We are on the way to their place, we thought you were going to be late?’.

‘Ya. I left early. I will just drop of my stuff at home and join. I will meet you guys there.’

‘I will come with you’, I wish this could have come from Anitha, but it was Karthik. Since I don’t seem to be having an option, I nod at Anitha and walk ahead.

Okay. Karthik is not the kind of guy who listened to people. I did not want to argue with him again. I sigh. Karthik can smile to make you melt and also can have a closed off face from which you cannot deduce anything.

‘Who is Anand?’, he asks, without preamble.

‘Ohh.. just a colleague, comes in my bus’.

‘Just a colleague?’, he asks. We are walking side by side and he is looking at me. I nod.

 ‘Why is just a colleague winking at you?’.

What? Oh yeah.

‘I dunno Karthik. Just like that I guess. I just spoke to him. I was just…’

‘Flirting with him?’, he completed the sentence.

‘What? I wasn’t flirting with him…’

He raises his left eye brow at me, in an oh-really kind of way. Did I flirt with him? Naaaa…

‘I wasn’t flirting Karthik. I was just talking to him.. He…’

I stop talking because I hear him taking in a sharp breath. He stops walking, having no other option, I stop too. My laptop seems heavy all of a sudden, so I pull the bag off my shoulder and set it down.

‘Are you saying you did not realize you flirted with him?’, he asks.

What? Nooo.

‘No Karthik. Not at all. I don’t understand what you are talking about.’

‘Priya’, he says. ‘I don’t think I like you flirting, intentionally or unintentionally. I don’t like the sound of tall trio. I don’t like the idea of Naren waking you up in the morning.’

My mind - What? Is he serious? Is he for real? What the hell? I don’t flirt. Come on, me?

My mouth – ‘What the hell are you talking about?’

Karthik just looks at me, his face still immobile and closed off.

I see red as I play his statement again in my head. This time it sounds like he is telling me, not asking me, but telling me. I just can’t believe he is this.. this arrogant. Something flashes in my mind and I remember the day at the coffee shop. How did I forget that he is bossy? Wait, how did things go so smooth until now? Right, because I found his activities agreeable so far. Stupid hormones. I just walk ahead, fast. Damn, this laptop is a nuisance when you want to walk fast.

Karthik just follows me. I reach my block, go into the elevator and push the buttons frantically hoping he misses it, but he gets in. I am mad. I have been out with this guy once. He is already telling me what to do. I reach the apartment, get my keys and start unlocking. Damn keys won’t fit right. I drop them in an attempt to open the door. I pick them up and try again, they still don’t fit. Karthik pushes me aside, gets the key from my hand, it fits right in and the door opens.

I walk in past him and rush to my room. He walks right behind me, but stops hesitantly outside my bed room. Thank god, he knew the line there so I close the door. I freshen up, trying to cool myself off. I change from my office wear and just pick a dark blue jeans and a black fitted tee shirt and pull it on. I loosely knot my hair and not willing to do anything else, in my current state, to make me look better, I open the door and walk out. I need water. I go to find water and find Karthik on my couch.

After all this time, I am still not sure what to tell him. I am still pissed. I stand in front of him and just drink water.

‘Priya?’, he reminds me that I can talk maybe?

‘Yes?’

‘You have nothing to say?’

‘You are a bossy jerk.’

‘Priya!’, now he makes my name sound like a scolding.

‘You are. You cannot tell me what I can or cannot do, who I can or cannot talk to, how I can or cannot talk’

He looks at me as if he does not comprehend. I try to calm myself down.

‘You cannot tell me what to do Karthik. That is not how things work’.

‘I only told you that I did not like certain things.’

‘But you expect me to do something about it right?’

He gives me a duh look. I stare at him.

I engage in the stare contest that is the mother of all stare contests. After what seems like hours, Karthik finally lets out a sigh.

‘Priya’, he says. At least now, my name sounds normal, not conveying anything else. ‘You told me Naren came and woke you up’.

‘Yep, he kept ringing my door bell until I woke up.’

‘Anand winked at you.’, Anand’s name is uttered with complete displeasure.

‘Ya, Anand is an idiot’, I don’t know Anand, but he saw Karthik’s stone faced bossiness, so he is an idiot to have still winked. Or just some guy thing, where he had to wink for stupid guyyish reasons on seeing Karthik’s overgrown ape-ness. Ugh.

‘You flirted with him. I was right there, you were beaming at him with that huge smile’

‘I did not flirt, I was smiling normally..’ , I want to explain, but he doesn’t let me.

‘You call them tall trio’. What? I can’t call them tall trio?

‘Only in my head. But, they are tall. Not as tall as you, but tall. I like tall men.’ I say and realize what I just said and bite my tongue. Well that is the truth; he has to deal with it.

He shakes his head. ‘Let’s go’, he says.

What? Just like that? Is he kidding ? I am being dismissed?

‘Excuse me?’, my tone is as outraged as I feel.

Karthik just looks at me with his left eyebrow cocked in question. I mean, that looks pretty impressive, lots of attitude on that one raised eyebrow, wow. But still… Be strong Priya. Do not fall for his male vices.

‘Aren’t you going to apologize?’

‘Why?’

I am one step away from pulling my hair. ‘Karthik, you can’t boss me around, you have to understand’.  

I stare at him, my arms crossed on my chest.

He sighs again. ‘Priya, if you want me to apologize, you are not getting it. If you want me to be understanding of the fact that you flirt with tall men, I am not going to.’

Whoa. He makes it sound as if I see a tall guy and go out of control. What the…

I try to calm myself again. How did I end up being the patient one here?

‘I just met Anand.. I mean, I don’t get..’, he shakes his head. Of course, his bossiness doesn’t want to hear me talk about Anand, the complete stranger.

I try not to see red. But I try patiently, mentally patting myself on the back.

‘Karthik, all three of them are good friends’. I don’t like defending myself. Relationships suck and we are not even in a relationship.

He nods now. ‘I am meeting them now, I will know for myself’.  How very infuriating, since when is he my guardian?

I lose my patience, ‘Seriously, who do you think you are? You are just the guy I went out with once. Come to think about it, I was forced that time too. You are an arrogant, bossy, domineering, pushy, presumptuous ass’, I inform him.

My breath is quickening and my face is all heated, I must look a sight. I am using redundant words over and over again, hey, I am pissed, I am allowed to.

He looks at me for a few seconds, walks towards me, leans down, raises and holds my face in between his hands. Just like that my thoughts shift. My anger dims and is being replaced with something else that I don’t recognize.

‘Shh Priya. Calm down, we have to go.’

What? He had to hold my face to say those words? What????? Also, he isn’t pissed anymore? This man is not consistent. I pull myself out of his hands.

‘I see that we are going to disagree about a lot of things’, he says.

I realize that this is his apology and his offer of understanding.

We are going to be the bomb when we are on the same page; we are going to bomb, when not so much on the same page. I walk out.

I hear him close the door. I start walking to Naren’s knowing he will follow. But he walks to me and pulls my hand into his; apparently he is good with me. I sigh again. We are not going to be easy.

Well, as long as we know it. We walk in silence and peace to Naren’s.

The door to their house is open. I pull out of Karthik’s hand and walk in.

‘Hi Pri’, I hear it from all of them. Aditya comes up and hugs me lightly.  I try not to look at Karthik. I look out for Anitha and Naren. Naren is sitting in the dining area chair and Anitha is in the living room. Talk about being on a break.

‘Guys, so you have heard about Karthik. This is he’, I say, by way of introduction. I introduce each of them to Karthik.

‘We are surprised to hear of Karthik again’, says Naren in a teasing tone.

‘Ohh, I kept hearing a lot..’, says Anitha.

Yikes.

‘Oh really?’, this is Karthik.

‘Yup. She is obsessed; she wouldn’t stop talking about you.’

‘You are one unlucky bastard’, says Aditya. There was some sort of small box on the coffee table, I just pick it up and throw it at him. He dodges it, catches and throws it back at me. I don’t dodge in time and I close my eyes in preparation. When it doesn’t come, I open my eyes and see that Karthik has caught the small box.

Ohhh.  Okay, Karthik can be handy after all. His caveman attitude can be helpful I guess.

‘Pri. Shame on you!’, says Aditya.

‘Awwwww’, this from Anitha. ‘Look at them. So cute. ’, she says, as if we are cute puppies or kittens.

‘Shut up Anitha’, I say, blushing for some insane reason. I turn to look at Karthik and he is looking at me, something in his eyes. I feel warm, but I remind myself, we are going to be difficult. Karthik is going to be difficult. Karthik is bossy. My blush only intensifies more. Damn.

‘Priya, can you come here a sec?’, Vivek calls me from the kitchen entrance. Yayy, Vivek is cooking today.

I go into the kitchen following him. ‘You aren’t cooking?’, I don’t see evidence of cooking, only coffee is being made.

‘Nope. We will order pizza in sometime. No time to cook’.

‘Okay. Pizza is good too.’

‘Help me with the coffee?’, he says and points at the milk. I nod and start assembling cups.

‘So Pri, you have a boyfriend all of a sudden? I did not see that coming…’

‘He is not a boyfriend. And, I did not see it coming too’, why does everyone think he is my boyfriend?

‘Pri, get over yourself and observe. He is a boyfriend because he is behaving like one.’

Huh? How’s that?

‘What?’

‘He seems protective. I am pretty sure he doesn’t like Aditya’, Vivek smiles as if that is funny. I don’t see Vivek smile much. Wait a minute, I don’t listen to Vivek talking this much.

‘I like Aditya. Since Aditya is my friend, that shouldn’t be a problem.’

I see Vivek shaking his head. ‘You like him. It is written all over you. This is going to be interesting’, he says. Vivek, the observer.

The coffee is done. I put the cups on two plates; of course the guys did not have trays. I carry one and Vivek carries one.

‘Coffee is served’, I announce entering the living room and I place it on the coffee table. I wish Karthik would pick up coffee from my plate as I made them. Silly me!

Karthik does. Anitha picks mine too. ‘Her coffee is always good’, she announces, to no one in particular. Naren comes and picks mine too.

I give him a reassuring smile and I could not help myself, so I pat him on this shoulder, he looks sad. Instead of going back to the dining table, he settles on the floor.

I pick up Vivek’s coffee and settle beside Naren. Karthik keeps looking at me.

They all seemed to be discussing each other’s job and all that. The discussion continues.

Naren turns to me. ‘You guys seem tense. Is everything alright?’

I nod and give him a smile. ‘How are you doing?’, I ask him.

‘Anitha hasn’t spoken to me after saying hi’, he sighs. We both turn to look at her and catch her looking at Naren. She hurriedly turns back to Aditya who is talking about some economic news.

‘She will come around’, I tell him and pat him on his shoulder again. 'It will all work out'.

‘It should’, he says. ‘It has to’, he pats my hand which is still on his shoulder.

Aditya asks about pizzas. We all know what we all like, whenever it was dinner at my place, we ended up ordering pizza. So, I am not even asked what topping I want. Only Karthik is asked.

I look at him. He looks robot-faced again. This day isn’t going good is it?

I get up and go sit next to Karthik. I don’t like his robot-face. I cannot ask in front of everyone what his problem is, so I just pull his left hand and start playing with it. I hope that helps. Karthik gives me a surprised look.

‘Did you make this coffee?’, he asks. I feel as if no one else is in the room. He is looking right into my eyes. I nod. He nods back. Of course, did I expect him to comment on it? I turn my head away. The guys and Anitha are arguing about some company’s IPO.

‘It is good’, he says, a smile in his face. I turn back to look at him, his face is less robotic. I smile. Right there, in the middle of everyone else’s conversation, he says the most unexpected thing.

‘You are not wrong’, he says. ‘You do have good friends’.

Ohhhh… Right. This guy should be taught how to apologize.

Before I can say anything, the guys start making fun of our little mini conversation on the side. I blush again. Damn.

Link to previous episodes : Episode 1  Episode 2  Episode 3  Episode 4  Episode 5  Episode 6  Episode 7  Episode 8 Episode 9 Episode 10 Episode 11 Episode 12 Episode 13