So.........We Meet Again 2

Sumit jiggled her sling bag like a pendulum purposely in order to gain her attention. Without paying much heed to his antics, Aastha pulled her bag from his hands and turned back to make a move.

“Don’t you think you’re forgetting something again?” There was a sly laugh in his voice, as if he was ridiculing her; annoying her further. She bounced back at him without any thought.

“Now whatttttt?” Sumit made a serious face at the tone of her voice.

“Maybe a Thank You.” Aastha waved her hands in the air and smiled.

“I don’t need your Thank You. Please keep it for yourself.” He looked at her in disgust.

“What I actually meant was you forgot to say Thank You to me.”

“For what?”

“For helping you out. Like, right now.”

“I had handled the situation pretty well myself before you arrived. So you aren’t eligible for my Thank You. Bye. I hope I never see you again.” She turned back, but he came right in front of her.

“He wouldn’t have given up so easily if I hadn’t come. He would have retaliated and you would have been in more trouble. So you owe me a Thank You, Aastha.”

“You don’t just buy my Thank you, Mr. Sumit Rathod. You have to earn it.” Sumit chortled, his smile reaching up to his eyes.

“Do you realise how ridiculous you sound right now? The least you could do is be grateful. What has actually happened to you? Either the girl I met two years ago wasn’t you or this girl isn’t you. What a transformation! Thank God my Mom isn’t here to witness your new look.” At that moment, Aastha realized why Sumit was different for her. He had something which the other guys didn’t have. The ability to push her buttons.

“I have every right to dress the way I please. It’s my life and you are a nobody. So please, don’t bother.” His hard pressed face indicated that she had hit the right nerve. She must have walked three steps of confidence until the alcohol intake in her body made her trip. This time, Sumit failed to reach on time. But he did offer his hand for help. Aastha accepted it, but felt way too embarrassed to look him in the eye.

“I don’t think you should go home alone. At least, not in this condition. If you allow me to, I can drop you home.” For a change, she felt that he genuinely sounded concerned. She hated the fact that it was Sumit, of all people, who was seeing her in this state.

“I’ll manage somehow. Don’t worry about me.”

“Ok. In that case, I’ll just call Payal and ask her to take you home.” He immediately removed his phone from his pocket but Aastha snatched it from his hand.

“You’re not calling anyone. I don’t want to disturb Payal and Rahul. I told you I can manage on my own. Leave me alone. You want me to say thank you, right. I’ll bow down at your feet and do as you want me. But, you’re not calling anyone and neither are you coming after me.” Sumit looked at Aastha, puzzled.

“Aastha, I’m just trying to help you.”

“I don’t need your help. THANK Y…………….Before the words could flow out of her mouth, her vomit had spread all over the place. Her clothes, Sumit’s clothes and the ground. Though he hated it, he patted her back and helped her till she vomited to her heart’s content.

“That’s it! I’ve had enough of your nonsense. I’m calling Payal whether you like it or not.” By now, he had already taken his phone from her and Aastha obeyed him like an obedient child.

Before Payal and Rahul could reach out to them, the hotel authorities had reached to them first. Sumit had a hard time convincing them but the manager was too insistent. His brash tone and repeated words annoyed her.

“I do understand, Sir. But you have to pay the fine. No one is allowed to vomit inside or outside the hotel’s premises, including your girlfriend.”

“What the hell is happening over here?” Amongst all the commotion, Payal ran towards Aastha to comfort her. They had come too late. By now, Sumit had lost his cool.

“Your best friend just puked on me and all over the place! That’s what happened! And that’s not all, I just paid the fine for it.”

Aastha kept roaming in her own world, while the others blabbered around her. In Payal’s car as well as at home. She barely slept that night and suffered a terrible hangover the next day. The day had begun on a negative note for her with her parents’ individual monologues. Her head and her body ached. The misadventures of the previous night haunted her all day. Whenever she thought about it, she felt like drowning in the ocean. As if she wasn’t feeling any better, a call from Payal made her feel even more miserable about herself.

“How are you feeling today, Aastha?” Aastha held her head in despair at her question.

“Terrible.”

“Considering that you were totally wasted yesterday, your voice seems refreshed to me. Anyways, Sumit was asking about you. He called twice to check if you were okay. Yesterday night as well as today morning. I told him that you were perfectly alright. Even though we didn’t speak, I knew you would be fine.” Out of all the topics in the world, why did she have to bring up Sumit?

“Please don’t mention his name. I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Hey, give the guy a break. Just because he rejected you doesn’t make him a bad person. He was merely trying to help you. At least, you could have been nice to him rather than showing this so called attitude. The poor guy not only ensured you reached home safely but also paid the fine on your behalf. On top of that, you even puked on him. At least, you should apologise.”

“Fine. I get it. Now, I am the villain. Your Sumit is a hero.”

“I didn’t mean it like that. Just let bygones be bygones. Don’t stress over the past. Focus on the present. I am sending you his number. It’s your call! Either you choose to move on or mope over it. Moreover, you were the one acting like a drama queen.”

“Okay. I agree that I might have overreacted a bit. I’ll talk to him later.”

“Great! Maybe you can even become friends.” Just the thought of it bugged Aastha.

“I’m not so sure about it. I will call him and say sorry and that will be the end of it all. Do you get it? I don’t want you playing cupid for me ever again, Payal.” Payal let out a huge sigh, such that Aastha could hear it clearly over the phone.

“If you say so. Though I still think Sumit and you would look really cute together. I guess I’ll have to drop that idea.”

“Shut up!!! Keep your stupid ideas to yourself next time.”

An edgy Aastha took three hours to gather the courage to pick up her phone and dial Sumit’s number. She must have phrased and rephrased hundreds of sentences in her mind, not being able to decide exactly what she should say to him. She didn’t want to talk to him as she had embarrassed herself way too much. He must have given himself an applause for taking the correct decision of rejecting her. She wondered why his opinion about her bothered her so much. Since he barely existed in her life 24 hours ago. She wished she had a time machine and could change the events of the previous day. Frustrated with her own thoughts, she dialled Sumit’s number as she just wanted to get over with it and forget about it. It was a formal call and nothing beyond that. To her dismay, he didn’t pick up. A part of her was happy as she wasn’t prepared to talk to him. The other one, was disappointed as hell. If only she knew why!

An hour later, he called her back. Reluctantly, she picked it up; reminding herself that she wanted to move on.

“Hello!” She spoke in a faint voice, barely audible to anyone, but herself.

“Hello! Am I speaking to Aastha?” She hated herself for thinking his voice sounded sexy over the phone.

“Yes, you are. How did you know it was me?” She spoke in a low voice again, and hit her head for sounding annoyingly stupid.

“True caller told me that I got a call from Ms. Aastha Mathur. I’m sorry I couldn’t receive your call earlier. I was at a relative’s place. I just came back. So, tell me. How are you feeling today?”

“I am perfectly fine, Sumit.” Aastha tried to sound as confident as possible. “I am extremely sorry for misbehaving with you yesterday. I don’t know what came over me. I’m usually not like this. I am not a drunkard. But I behaved like one. I refused to acknowledge that you were trying to help me out. You returned me my bag. Yet, I was mean to you. I threw up on you. And I don’t even remember what else I must have done to cause you trouble. I am sorry and I want to thank you as well. For helping me out with that guy, you know. And for paying my fine. How much did you pay anyway? I can pay you back and get your clothes dry cleaned. As a friendly gesture, of course. To actually show you how sorry I am.” She spoke so fast to such an extent that she had no idea of the words coming out of her own mouth. Until she had heard Sumit laughing his heart out on the other end.

“Don’t worry about my clothes. I’ve already given them for dry cleaning today morning. As far as the fine is concerned, money has never been a problem for me and my family. So, I’m okay with you not paying me back.” There he was, at it again. Bragging about his money. It reminded Aastha why she had disliked him at their first meeting. “But I accept your thank you and sorry. I’ve not been on my best behavior with you, anyways. So, I guess I deserved your vomit on my t-shirt.” Now, he was being sweet. All of a sudden.

“It won’t happen again. I promise.” Not that she was going to meet him again anyways. “Thank you for everything.”

“It’s alright. Don’t bother yourself too much. Listen, Aastha. Are you free next Sunday? I was thinking of catching up with you. We didn’t quite get a chance to talk at Rahul’s party. Maybe, we could start afresh. We might meet more than often now. Since, we have common friends and all.” Fantastic! Now he wanted to catch up. As if a telephonic conversation wasn’t enough.

“I am……………actually pretty busy the entire next week. My cousin is getting married next Sunday.” It was a lie, but the only way to avoid him at present. She needed time to figure things out.

“Oh! That’s fine.” Sumit sounded upset. “Maybe some other time then.”

“Yeah! Why not? Maybe some other time.” Aastha repeated his words blankly, hoping it would never happen.

The week which followed after kept her busy with work, sparing her no time to think about Sumit. He became a distant memory for her, someone she thought about before going to sleep. His personality was as confusing as before. He was a combination of sweet and salty. A dish she surely didn’t want to eat and invite trouble for herself. So, the best option was to stay away. Luckily, he stayed away from her too. When Sunday finally arrived, all Aastha wanted to do was spend it lazily doing nothing. Her plans clashed with her mother’s though. An hour of bickering and arguing with her mother ended up spending her Sunday evening purchasing groceries with her mother at a mall.

Aastha had only agreed since she didn’t want her mother to carry all the heavy bags on her own. After shopping, her mother deserted her on meeting some of her old friends at the mall, leaving her all alone with three heavy bags of groceries to be taken home. She just couldn’t believe her luck. While her own mother was having a gala time with her friends, she was left carrying 3 bags heavier than her own weight. She walked as fast as she could, to get out of the mall and catch a rickshaw to get home. In a haste, she bumped into a wall of a man; spilling some items from one of the bags. Without even looking at his face, Aastha kept murmuring to herself, while picking up the items. The man’s strong hands willingly helped her out.

“Can’t you see where you’re going? Look at what you’ve done now.”

There was no answer. When she had collected all the items, she stood up to take notice of the man who became her obstacle in the struggle to go home. Two familiar greyish black eyes glared at her as if she had just committed a heinous crime. Sumit Rathod’s eyes.

“Weren’t you supposed to attend a cousin’s wedding today, if I am not wrong?”

Aastha looked at him, her eyes wide with horror, cursing her luck for agreeing to come with her Mom.

To be continued………………..