“Yeah, the paperwork’s still in process,” I said, trying to cool my head. The sudden encounter had sent my thoughts veering off-road.
“This would be so great, right?” she said. “The three of us together again.”
I looked up to find her smiling, almost giggling.
“Yeah,” I said, smiling too. “We did a lot of things… and a lot of blunders back in college.”
“We did,” she agreed. “Even though so much time has passed.”
She paused, taking a sip of her drink.
“But it feels like it was just yesterday.”
Her eyes met mine again, still smiling, lost somewhere in thought.
“You still play the guitar?” she asked. “Like you used to?”
“Yeah,” I replied. “Sometimes.”
Back in college, I’d learned to play just for her. She would probably never know. The memory of those days — the grinding, the endless practice — made me smile without realizing it.
“Oh,” she said, stepping closer. “I’d love to hear you play.”
Her face was a little flushed, maybe from the drink.
She’d never been good with alcohol, yet she never missed a chance to drink.
“Yeah… maybe sometime in the future,” I said, returning her smile. “At some office event or function.”
“No,” she said — so softly I almost missed it.
“Maybe… when it’s just us.”
She stepped even closer.
Without thinking, I took a step back.
I saw it immediately — the disappointment flicker across her face.
“Abhi,” she said quietly, “you still love me… right?”
Her words hit me like a bomb. She wasn’t joking this time. I could tell.
Silence! i just blankly stared at her. I had nothing to say. This turn of events had caught me completely off guard.
One question echoed in my head — how? And why now?
“You thought I’d never notice?” she said. “I’m not that dense.”
There was a shy smile on her face, but I could see how hard this was for her too.
“I thought one day you’d come to me,” she said. “But you never did.”
She took another sip of her drink, as if trying to steady herself.
“So I decided to come to you. But then I found out you were already dating someone.”
Regret crossed her face fleeting, but real before she smiled again.
“I thought maybe I was too late,” she said softly.
“Even though it hurt… I was still happy for you.”
I wanted to say something, but my thoughts refused to come together into words.
And she continued without me, just like always. Somehow, she had me cornered again.
“But Liam told me it didn’t work out,” she said.
Her words felt alien.
Liam told her?
What did he tell her?
What exactly hadn’t worked out?
“So I’ll say this before you…”
She paused and took a deep breath.
“Abhi, I”
“Wait.”
I cut her off. I knew what she was about to say. What I felt was not nervousness or excitement anymore. It was anger.
“I don’t know why Liam told you that,” I said, keeping my eyes away from hers.
“There is nothing over between us. I still love her. And I will wait for her.”
I glanced at her then and saw tears forming in her eyes.
My anger was not for her. It was for Liam. She deserved the truth.
“I am sorry,” I said.
Then I walked past her toward the exit. I could not bear to stay any longer. Maybe this marked that full stop to my first love.
I walked toward my car, ready to drive back home.
“Hey, Abhi?” someone called from behind.
I turned and saw Liam standing there, trying to catch his breath.
“Where are you going? And why was Natasha crying back there?” he asked, confused. He should not have been.
“You still do not know?” I said. I did not want to talk to him. I was angry enough to say something I would not be able to take back.
“Oh… oh gosh,” he muttered, rubbing his face. “Did she confess to you?”
He began pacing back and forth, clearly agitated.
“I told her this was not the time. I told her to take it slow.”
I did not understand what he was talking about.
“You told her?” I asked. “You told her what?”
My voice rose before I could stop it.
“Listen,” he said. “She liked you from the start. She just thought you were already into someone else.”
He continued before I could respond.
“So I helped her with the truth.”
Truth. That word did not sound like Liam anymore.
“Truth?” I asked. “That was the truth? Who decided that?”
I could hear the cracks in my voice. The emotions were overflowing now.
“Come on, Abhi,” he said, stepping closer. “Do not act dumb. You know this was her way of moving on.”
He shook me slightly, as if trying to wake me from sleep.
“I could not see you like that every day. Broken. Still waiting for someone who was never coming back.”
He looked straight into my eyes.
“So I talked to her. Because I knew she liked you.”
His words only fueled my anger.
“Liam, who gave you the right to decide it was over?” I shouted without realizing it. “You brought me here and tried to set me up without even asking me.”
I pushed him in anger. He stepped back.
“Dammit,” he snapped. “Then go back to your room and wait. Wait for her to come to you and say what you are pretending not to understand.”
I had never seen Liam this angry before.
“Listen, man,” he said, lowering his voice as he stepped closer again. “I know you are fragile, so please stop.”
I did not want to hear anything anymore.
“Sorry,” I said.
I got into my car and drove away, leaving Liam standing there.
The drive home was a blur. My emotions kept rising and falling, making it hard to focus on the road. Somehow, I reached home.
I did not want to think anymore.
I collapsed onto my bed, and somewhere between those exhausting thoughts, I drifted into sleep.
***
“Hey, Abhi… Abhi, wake up.”
I drifted out of sleep as I heard Liam’s voice.
Rubbing my eyes, I saw him standing beside my bed. His face looked pitiful, like he felt sorry for me for some reason.
“What happened? What time is it?” I asked. I had no idea how long I had slept, but the sun was already high outside the window.
“It’s one in the afternoon,” he said.
“It’s that late already?”
I sat up. The anger from last night was gone. I knew what he had done was wrong, but I also knew he thought he was doing it for me.
“Hey, Abhi, listen,” Liam said, sitting beside me. “I’m sorry about last night.”
“No problem.”
“Listen, I didn’t want you to see this,” he continued, “but you left me no choice.”
His words confused me. He started scrolling through his phone and then held it out toward me.
“Hey, what is—”
The words caught in my throat when I saw the picture.
“I saw her yesterday with this man at a café,” he said, taking a deep breath. “So I took the picture and just…”
My mind went blank. I could not hear anything else.
All I could see was Mira, sitting across from a man I did not recognize, smiling at him. I knew the faces of all her family members. This was not one of them.
“Hey, Abhi,” Liam said, shaking me slightly to pull me out of my thoughts. “I didn’t want you to see this, but I felt it was better for you to realize it now than to break later.”
“Huh?”
I looked up at him, feeling numb. Too many thoughts crowded my head, making me dizzy.
“Listen, Abhi. Let this go,” he said, placing a hand on my shoulder, almost sympathetically. “I know Natasha will understand. You were confused yesterday. You both can start over.”
“No.”
The word came out without thought.
Liam took a deep breath and stood up.
“Then ask her who this was,” he said. I looked up to see disappointment on his face. “Why can’t you? Because of this stupid challenge?”
He rubbed his forehead and started to walk away, his shoulders slumped.
“Abhi,” he said, stopping at the door with his back to me. “It’s better if you realize early. And if you do… I’m here. Just come talk to me.”
He left without turning back.
He left me alone with my thoughts, and they began to swallow me. Questions after questions kept popping into my head.
I got out of bed, rushed to my car, and started driving with the windows down, hoping the air would cool my head.
That image stayed with me. Her smile, not meant for me, but for someone else. The thought felt like a knife in my chest. I could almost hear my heart crack.
When I finally stopped the car, I realized I had driven to her house without thinking. I wanted to walk in and ask her everything. Who was he? Had we really ended?
I sat there, tapping the steering wheel, trapped in my thoughts. The promise I had made to her felt like a rope around my neck. Holding me back, choking me at the same time.
My heart screamed for answers, breaking a little more with every passing second of silence.
But instead, I pressed the accelerator and drove away. Away from her.
Still, the thought of losing her clung to me, suffocating. And the fear that I would regret this too.
"