Cupid never had a chance in their messy, parental-restricted love story
Karishma Jha, a twenty-one-year-old recent graduate with the world at her feet if only she chose to face it. Plagued with the worries of the future and yet healing from the scar...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
A few days later Atharv suggested we go for lunch. It was a good time as any to let him know about what I was up to.
"You are doing me this huge favor. The least I could do is treat you for lunch."
"I am not the one to say no to a free meal. Fine, I will see you tomorrow. Also, I will catch you up on all the arrangements that I have made till now."
The next day, despite me saying no, Atharv showed up at my doorstep.
"I could have met you down, you know that right?" I said to him while locking my door behind me.
"Yes, but then the time taken you to reach the ground floor might have been enough to change your mind to meet me." Yeah, that has happened a few times before. I lost my nerves at the last second, overthinking my purpose for even hanging out with them. But this time it was different.
I narrowed my eyes at him playfully. "Free meal, jiju. That's the only reason I am going anywhere with you."
He said nothing but laughed in response.
We got in the lift, and I pressed the button for the ground floor. Just when the door was about to close a hand reached in the middle to stop it.
Please be a delivery guy, please be a delivery guy, I repeated in my mind. But it turned out to be my sunshine neighbor, who for some reason looked as if someone had rained on his parade.
His brooding self was dressed in a black formal shirt and trousers with a sunglass tucked in his shirt. The tail of a tie peeked from his pocket. A brown backpack hung on his right shoulder. Did he have a job interview?
He was shameless about eyeing me and Atharv together. He studied us with an intensity that made me squirm under his gaze. Thankfully Atharv did not seem to recognise him as he scrolled away on his phone. I met my neighbor's gaze head-on. He narrowed his eyes. I mirrored his expression. I was not going to be the first one to break eye contact.
But just then this brilliant idea flashed in my mind. But since it was me, it could have been brilliantly stupid as well. However, I did not have the time to debate. He obviously did not like my companion, so why not have some fun with that?
"Thank you so much for taking me out." I gripped Atharv's arm and batted my eyelashes, trying to inject some breathlessness into my voice. One look at Rishabh's glaring eyes made that easy. He was drilling holes with his eyes where my hand touched Atharv's arm.
My show was working. Rishabh's fists curled up and an audible grunt echoed within the close space. I was barely able to mask my smug smirk.
"Huh," Atharv looked up from his phone and down at me.
"I wanted to go to that restaurant for so long. I was dying to try their authentic Neopolitan pizza. Did you know they make it in a wooden oven?" I squeezed his arm and leaned into him further.
