by gleefulblogger

Bits and Pieces: Short Love Story – Part 2

April 2, 2020

Picking up from where we left Reema and Abhay’s story yesterday… for Part 1, Altering Ego, click here.

“I get it, the taste of my own medicine. I was rude earlier with you, sorry! But that will not change anything between us Abhay. We will be back to square one tomorrow, you as everyone’s favorite and I a perpetual struggler – a geek/padhaku or whatever your squad calls me.” she said thumping her hand on the sidewall.

He chuckled as if this is a joke but his smirk waned when she glared at him. “You are not that coy, Reema so stop playing the victim card. It was you, who in the beginning slashed me out from every corner. You made a fool out of me in front of the whole auditorium in our first case study together.”

“And yes, it was you who never acknowledge anyone’s intelligence but your own, let’s not even bother to talk about the feelings…” Abhay left the line hanging between them.

Reema was taken a back with this outburst; she never imagined he would blame her for the business study project of semester one. It was she who was holding a grudge against him for giving her false hope and never turning back.

“ME!! HOW DARE YOU BLAME ME FOR THAT!” She was seething anger and extremely loud. Abhay glanced around; luckily there was no one to overhear them except a few canteen workers who were busy in themselves. He pulled her towards the side and asked her to calm down. But Reema was heaving fire, she started pointing out each and every mistake Abhay had ever done (according to her)

While she was busy counting endless flaws in Abhay, he could only gaze her beauty. She is taller than the average woman’s height, perfectly balanced features with a cute pointy nose, which flares when she gets angry. Bewitching eyes with a lot of kohl drama; that silver nose pin is what catches his attention all the time. Her lips were mouthing so fast with the words and all he could think of is kissing them.

Abhay took her face in both his hands and kissed her like they were meant to be only his. This sudden motion stopped her non-stop complaining banter to an abrupt halt. Reema was silent, wide-eyed and a steak of smitten shyness could be seen on her cheeks. “What was that for?” she whispered.

He did not say anything, just kept looking at her face. Her eyes prodded him back, gathering a few words he said, “I always wanted to kiss them Reema, but never thought it would be like this.” He tilted his head to rest on the wall, arched eyebrows in provocation but there was none.

“Do you remember our first day at IIFT; you were sitting on 3^rd seat one row ahead of me, red polka dots top and black trousers. Profound and very careful with the right word choices. Well, you made it clear I was never the right choice, by pushing me away every time I tried to reach you.”

Reema was out of words for the first time in her life, she couldn’t believe what Abhay just said. It was he who made fun of her every time they were together. Was that all facade to hide his real feelings for her? Does accepting his feelings, will make him any less in front of others?

She was spiraling in the web of events occurred between them in these two years. Her heart was jumping with excitement, but brains are what she usually follows.

He takes a step back gauging her silence, cursing himself to be an idiot; Abhay joined his hands to apologize for what happened a moment ago. He saw moisture building up in her eyes, but before he could react, she was already gone.

She walked down the stairs in disappointment and wrapped her arms around herself to save off the sudden chill making her heart sink.

It was pouring inside and out, she felt her lips where his warmth is still holding on. But it’s time to end this charade. They are not the two opposites that attract, but a deadly combination of egos and pride. Same as the ‘clash of titans’, what Abhay once jokingly commented.

“What did I do? How could you, dammit Abhay!” He muttered to himself after Reema left him at the canteen. That faint moment when he denounced his feelings for her, in bits and pieces, he felt like a fool. He threw a hard punch on the wall to blow out some steam, the very place where she was standing moments ago.

Following days were hard to pass, seeing each other in the same college and space but pretending as if nothing ever happened. She had never shown any inclination of her feeling for him, and he felt like a looser again. Having lost a battle of wits and wills to her all over again.

It was almost the end of their two-and-a-half year’s business program, which they have scored in jubilant colours. Reema was picked up by the top notch multinationals during campus placements, and Abhay started his own medical-technology start-up.

As they say, time and tide waits for none, they grew into life and career exponentially, however, a few loose ends are hard to cut off from life. Destiny had other plans in motion, their excellent career graphs are about to collide again. Now, as business partners, Abhay’s firm has recently bagged a multinational contract to build up medical technology for them. It was Reema again who was spearheading the project.

The End!

Written as part of AtoZ challenge. My theme is Short Love Stories.

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