In which Anjali moves to Misayur, a small town in Western Tamilnadu to live with her grandmother and ends up running into her childhood crush Karthik, who is not the unserious boy she knew him as anymore.
Anjali put her head in her hands and groaned. “Yes, I know. I should just give up on existing in this world.”
“No, I’m serious,” Layla asked, trying not to burst out laughing, “You really kissed his hand?”
“Yes,” Anjali mumbled, dragging her fingers over her face. “I’m so dumb.”
Layla didn’t pretend anymore. She laughed into her hands, falling back onto the cushion. “Why did you do it?”
“I don’t know, okay?” Anjali said. “I mean, you should have been there. Watching a goody-two-shoes like Karthik punch a man was hot as fuck but the fact that he did it for me almost gave me an orgasm. Actually, I should be grateful that I settled for a kiss on his hand. If we were anywhere else, I swear I would have pulled him for a kiss.”
“You were horny, babe,” Layla said, sipping her coffee. “And that’s normal. I mean, the time when Vishal came back from his college after a long time, we —”
“That’s not it. I wasn’t horny!” she protested. “I mean, maybe I was. A little. But there was this unexplainable urge to kiss him— you wouldn’t understand because you were not in my shoes, Layla.”
“Okay, now what’s done is done and who knows? Maybe Karthik found it cute. You said he was nice to you when you patched him up and even offered to drop you home that night. It doesn’t make sense for you to hide from him.”
“What if I crossed a boundary? I mean, even when he asked to hold hands he took the effort to clarify that we were best friends when he didn’t need to.”
“Then, talk it out. Ask him if it made him uncomfortable. Conversations are important. Especially kinds like these,” Layla offered.
“Won’t that make it more awkward?”
“Woman!”
“Should I try and pretend that it never happened?”
“You can do that but I don’t think it will be good in the long run. You’ll be giving each other mixed signals. That’s trouble.”
Anjali pouted. “I don’t want to talk about it, Layla. I don’t want to lose him.”
“Those two sentences are unrelated. Pull yourself together and go talk to him. You’re punishing the kid too just because you can’t deal with this,” Layla said. She felt a stab of guilt when she thought of Tanya. She hadn’t been to visit her for a while.
“I guess I should talk to him.”
"Ha, knew that would work. I think you're more in love with that kid than with Karthik."
Anjali chuckled. "That might be true."
ओह! यह छवि हमारे सामग्री दिशानिर्देशों का पालन नहीं करती है। प्रकाशन जारी रखने के लिए, कृपया इसे हटा दें या कोई भिन्न छवि अपलोड करें।
Karthik couldn't sleep. It wasn't because of the leaking walls in his warehouse or the paint job that's pending in his bathroom. It was neither his mother's health nor Tanya's education that was worrying him.
