Destiny's Play!!

Chapter - 30

Riddhima looked out the window and saw Uday's car park in the driveway. She had come home with Manya on the pretext of copying some notes. But she had been anxiously waiting for either Uday to come back or Avni. She got her wish. Only they both came home together. So Uday had picked Avni and brought her back. She felt her anxiety replaced by something akin to insecurity. For three years the guy had been after her life to give him a chance to prove the sincerity of his affections towards her but she had rebuffed him every single time though she had liked the attention she had got. She liked Uday too. Somewhere along the line she had felt attracted to him but she had always wanted a serious, mature guy and Uday was neither. He was not at all serious and maturity well, it seemed the word had lost its meaning on him. He was fun, sweet and lazy. So what if he had his own business running smoothly? But she had never pictured him being with someone else. Neither had she thought he would switch his affections to some other girl. From the way it looked he was doing the exact same thing.

What had she expected? That he would spend the rest of his life waiting for her to give him a green signal. The guy was twenty seven years old sooner or later he would become bored with the game she played and look for another to settle down. But Avni? She had been here just a week and he was already going out of his way to pick and drop her. She had been with Manya when he had called from the college gate. And she had heard every word he had spoken. He hadn't enquired about her at all instead he had asked if Manya was having lunch with Avni. And when Manya had told her laughingly that Avni was not coming to college anymore but was interning at the school he had sounded depressed. Riddhima hadn't liked it. She couldn't explain it but she had felt a sense of doom and when Manya had teased her about it her mood had worsened.

Avni was a sweet girl. Frankly Riddhima liked her. Quiet, serious and mature. She was a little demure if one was to ask her but she had a certain integrity about her, a quality Riddhima appreciated. She didn't know Avni very well but from what she had seen, Avni did seem like a girl who moved with a weight around her neck. And that did make Riddhima wonder if a girl Avni's age should have that kind of look about her. She wasn't all that older but the way she spoke made her seem experienced, wiser and still an innocent. Fragile. The correct word to use would be fragile. As if she could break any minute. Was this the kind of girl Uday would like? Enough to propose? Or was it why he was suddenly seeking her out? Riddhima wasn't sure and she knew it wouldn't be fair to judge anyone so soon without facts in front of her. Maybe Uday had just wanted to be a good host or maybe aunty had asked him to pick her up as it was her first day at school. But it was practically six now. She couldn't have been at school all this while. So where did she go? Did Uday accompany her? Riddhima chewed on her lower lip as she watched the two of them go towards the main door.

"What are you thinking about so furiously?" Manya asked. Her voice bringing Riddhima out of her thoughts.

"Nothing," she said as she straightened from the window.

"Then why are you chewing your lip as if you have had nothing to eat today?" Manya asked again.

Riddhima glared at her friend. She was a sweetheart but sometimes she could really get on your nerves. Even Uday was better than her.

"I don't understand," Riddhima said with a straight face, "how come only you come up with such things?" she asked as she crossed her arms across her chest.

"Because I am the smarter of the two of us," Manya said with a smile, "so Uday is back?" she said knowingly.

"How did you know?" Riddhima asked irritated with her.

"I know what his jeep sounds like," Manya said pretending to be occupied with arranging her books on her study table, "I live here remember," she said.

"Yes, I do remember," Riddhima said exasperated with her.